"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." -Theodore Roosevelt "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American." -Theodore Roosevelt "Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists'" -Thomas Sowell "Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole." -Thomas Sowell "Character, not circumstances, makes the man." -Booker T. Washington "When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear." - Thomas Sowell

A mother sits at her kitchen table late at night, scrolling through the state’s school report. Her seventh-grade son still struggles to read. Math homework ends in frustration and tears. She’s been told to be patient, that the school is “improving.” The report says the school partially meets standard. Growth looks strong. Support plans are in place. But when she asks the only question that really matters—Are most kids actually reading and doing math at grade level?—the answer is still no. That gap between what families are told and what students experience is exactly what HB 643 threatens to make permanent. HB 643 rewrites how Virginia labels and scores school performance. While it sounds more equitable, it makes chronic underperformance harder for parents to see and harder to challenge. The bill shifts accountability away from whether students meet academic standards and toward “growth” on paper, even when most students remain below proficiency. Growth matters, but growth without mastery still leaves children unprepared. Worse, HB 643 reduces how much failing counts in school ratings. In plain terms, failure matters less. Schools can earn higher labels even if fewer students are mastering reading and math. For low-income families and communities of color who have been promised progress for decades, this feels like the goalposts moving again. If we care about civil rights and student outcomes, we must demand an accountability system that tells families what’s really happening and pushes schools to do better.

The American public education system has been disrupted for decades. The inconsistent system of lower standards and expectations for students is not working. Same with the constant lack of accountability for students’ behavior in classrooms. Now Harvard is teaching remedial classes. Family must be responsible for their children’s education.