Fronts in the culture wars
The COVID-19 pandemic changed K-12 education. Battles were waged in school districts across the nation as parents, teachers and administrators grappled with a global public health emergency.
In 2021, parents flocked to school board meetings nationwide to demand answers about school shutdowns, the switch to online classes, and mask and vaccine mandates.
It didn’t take long for some politicians to tap into the anger and mistrust. They began challenging school policies involving transgender students, such as all-gender restrooms, and critical race theory, an academic framework that argues racism is embedded in American society and institutions.
The two jurisdictions differ politically. Lexington voters tend to vote for Democrats, while county residents support mostly Republican candidates.
Residents in both areas are mostly white. But the city has proportionately almost double as many Black residents as the county. Lexington also claims more college graduates among its residents than the county.
The divisions haven’t changed much in the 31 years since the two governments created Rockbridge County High School to educate the area’s children.
Instead, at times, the differences have gotten worse.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin built his 2021 campaign on “parental rights.” On his first day in office, Youngkin signed executive orders to end the use of “inherently divisive concepts” like critical race theory and “ensure that parents are empowered” in their children’s education.
The state’s public education system is more complicated than most because Virginia has 38 independent cities, plus 95 counties. That means that all of the jurisdictions maintain separate governments—and represent separate sources of power that can conflict with one another.
Virginia law also requires that school board members live in the districts they serve. That means geography determines who has a say and who doesn’t in the education of children in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, July 2022 data.