Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, called for the state to “diversify” its teaching staff at an event on Sunday, after complaining about the percentage of white teachers in Virginia.
“We got to work hard to diversify our teacher base,” McAuliffe said while campaigning in Manassas, Fox News reported.
“Fifty percent of our students are students of color, 80% of the teachers are white, so what I’m going to do for you, we’ll be the first state in America,” the Democrat continued. “If you go teach in Virginia for five years in a high-demand area — that could be geographic, it could be course work — we will pay room, board, tuition, any college, any university, or any HBCU here in Virginia.”
As highlighted by Fox News, it remains unclear if McAuliffe would support hard racial quotas for teachers, but his campaign platform promises to “address modern-day segregation in our schools” and to “cultivate the next generation of highly qualified and diverse educators.”
“Forty-three-year career politician Terry McAuliffe failed to keep his promises to raise teacher pay to the national average the first time he ran for governor, so now he’s trying to scare teachers by lying about Glenn Youngkin’s education plan,” said a spokesman for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican opposing McAuliffe. “Unlike McAuliffe, Youngkin will keep his promise to raise teacher pay and propose the largest education budget in Virginia history.”
Diversity pushes, however, are continually being challenged in court. Last week, for example, a North Carolina marketing and communications executive who claims he was fired for being a white male won a whopping $10 million for his wrongful termination. David Duvall, who supported “diversity” efforts at the company, and other white male executives were allegedly fired to make room for female and non-white executives. The Daily Wire reported:
In his 2019 lawsuit, David Duvall argued that Novant Health’s diversity efforts led to him being replaced in July 2018. “The jury said that Duvall proved that his race and gender were motivating factors in Novant Health’s decision to terminate him, according to the jury’s verdict form. The jury also indicated that Novant Health failed to prove that it would have dismissed Duvall regardless of his race,” the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
“Duvall said in his lawsuit that he was fired in 2018 without warning or explanation shortly before his fifth anniversary with the company. He said he was replaced by two women, one Black and one white. Duvall, who worked in Mecklenburg County, accused Novant of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race and gender discrimination in the workplace,” WXII 12 noted.
McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia and a longtime Democratic Party operative, has been losing grip on his lead over Youngkin. In fact, polls showed the Republican with a lead over McAuliffe in the tight race, Thursday.
Related: The Biggest Race Of The Year: Everything You Need To Know About The Virginia Gubernatorial Election
Related: Exec Who Claimed He Was Fired For Being White Male Awarded $10 Million