Demeaning, Belittling, Personal Attacks By Certain Senate Democrats
This morning Democrats on the Senate Education and Health Committee killed HB 511, the Athletic Accessibility Act (also known as the “Tebow Bill”), introduced by Delegate Marie March (R-7, Pulaski) pictured above, on a procedural motion by an 8-7 vote. The one Democrat exception was Lynwood Lewis (D-6, Accomac) who joined all six Republicans in opposition to the motion. But that’s almost the side story.
The bill simply would allow localities to decide for themselves whether to allow homeschool students to try out for sports teams at their local public high school. But for certain Democrats on the committee defeating the bill wasn’t enough. They had to personally attack, demean and belittle homeschool students and their parents, who happen to pay the taxes that pay the senators.
The first outrage began with Senator Gazala Hashmi (D-10, Chesterfield), chair of the committee’s Public Education Subcommittee, who failed to acknowledge those who supported HB 511. Last week, because of an extremely busy day on the House floor (“Budget Day”) delegates with bills in the subcommittee could not attend to present their bills. Senator Hashmi announced what sounded like a fair proposal: Supporters and opponents of each bill could offer their testimonies, and at the full committee she would summarize them right before the patrons would give their presentations. The subcommittee would not vote in a patron’s absence.
While she did so for the first few bills, she mentioned only the opposition to HB 511 – made up exclusively of the public education cartel – and completely omitted testimony from The Family Foundation, the Governor’s Office and a Hampton Roads public school track coach whose two homeschooled children now are college track stars. The omission gave the impression no one supported the bill when anyone who watched in person or online saw that the proponents clearly won the debate.
After Delegate March’s presentation, committee members were supposed to discuss and debate the bill, but before an intelligent comment could be made, Senator Janet Howell (D-32, Reston) dove straight into the rhetorical dumpster by quoting a liberal former senator, who said homeschool students shouldn’t be allowed to play public school sports because they spend all day laying on the couch.
Delegate March emphasized that HB 511 was not a mandate but local option and that rural areas need the legislation because recreation and travel leagues aren’t as available in those regions. That’s when Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-35, Springfield), piped up that if they want to play sports that badly then maybe their parents should enroll them in public schools. (To hear all of this with your own ears, click HERE and fast forward to the 20:15 mark.)
Insulting homeschool students as lazy and unmotivated, throwing false blame at their parents who pay the taxes to keep the schools open, and concealing information from the public and decision makers may fool a few of the people now, but not most of the people later. Now there is video to review and they can’t take back their insults. Just like Terry McAuliffe’s belittling words and devious tactics during the elections, so too, were certain Virginia Senate Democrats this morning.
