UPDATE: January 28, 2025 It appears Senator Pekarsky is getting desperate to make a case against religious parents who are home schooling. Despite no evidence that children of religious parents are receiving a substandard education, Senator Pekarsky has completely dropped her first bill to remove the religious exemption from home schooling and replaced it with a Substitute “to study it”: “Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. § 1. The Board of Education (the Board) shall convene a work group for the purpose of studying and making recommendations on how, if at all, the current law relating to religious exemptions from compulsory attendance and the provision of home instruction could be amended to better ensure that all children in the Commonwealth receive an adequate education.” But even her party leadership said no, you’ve gone to far and tabled here bill.
This is what is wrong in Richmond. If a legislator cannot accomplish what she wants for her pet crusade democratically, she creates a work around in the form of a blue-ribbon committee, wasting tax-payer money, and stacks the committee to get the desired result. Pekarsky’s substitute specifies that members of the work group will all be appointed by the Democrat leadership in the House and Senate assuring a negative outcome for homeschooling families. This is the same tactic Pekarsky employed to get pornographic material into FCPS libraries. She referred the obscene books to the School Board Advisory Committee that reviews books. All members of the committee were appointed by her and her other left-wing colleagues. Not surprisingly this “community-based” Committee returned with a recommendation to embrace the obscene books that they claimed were not only age-appropriate, but necessary for the self-esteem of LGTBQ students who need to see examples of other LGBTQ persons acting out sexually to affirm their sexuality.
Democrats are dependent on the Teachers’ Unions to finance their political campaigns. Homeschooling is a threat to public schools and the teachers’ unions as the poor performance of the public schools is leading to a mass exodus — fewer students, less money. Follow the money. In 2022-23, Fairfax Public schools’ results of SOLs (standards of learning tests) revealed 22% of children failed reading, 43% failed writing, 25% failed Math, 28% failed Science, 38% failed History. Under Pekarsky’s watch on the Fairfax school board, there was a significant drop in student population (In 2017 FCPS projected 190,632 students for school year 2022. For 24-25, there are 179,858 students.) It was the teachers’ unions that drafted policy to keep schools closed long after the Covid pandemic was considered a threat, and Stella Pekarsky sat as the FCPS Board Chair putting down parents who raised concerns about students being denied in-person schooling. Stella Pekarsky is their woman in Richmond!
Senator Pekarsky needs to leave home-schooling parents alone; they and their kids are doing fine. If she truly wants “to better ensure that all children in the Commonwealth receive an adequate education,” she should get an outside audit of what is happening in Fairfax Public Schools.
To keep up with Senator Pekarsky’s latest tactics attacking home schooling, go to Home Educators Association of Virginia
In 2021, it is widely understood that Terry McAuliffe, national Democrat star, lost the governor’s race to an unknown businessman because of his arrogant comments that” we can’t have parents dictating what is taught to children in public schools.” It became a political issue because the abuses and radical policies of school boards were exposed in Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun County schools. Senator Stella Pekarsky was Fairfax School Board Chair during McAuliffe’s campaign. She has chosen to follow in his footsteps and brought her contempt of parents to Richmond with a rash of “education” bills. Is her main target of her Home-schooling bill an attack on competition to public schools or on persons of religious faith?
The bill getting the most attention is her attempt to remove the religious exemption provision for home-schooling. Pekarsky claims “I introduced SB 1031 because every child in Virginia has the right to a complete education.” Because public schools cannot (or will not) teach about God, the creator of the universe, children in public schools are being denied a “complete education”. Private schools and home-schooling are the only choices that provide an opportunity for a “complete education.” The omission of Judeo-Christian values in public schools have led to a free-for-all discipline nightmare that drives many families away from public schools.
Pekarsky is receiving pushback for her bill from home-school parents and even the Governor. Pekarsky issued a defensive press release that will further energize proponents of home-schooling and people of faith. In her statement, Pekarsky reveals her contempt and distrust of parents’ competence and authority unless it receives the government’s seal of approval.
Challenging Home Schooling
Background: All homeschooling parents must submit notice to the local public school authority that they will educate their own children. The religious exemption allows this process to be done once for the entire period of the child’s education. It recognizes that parents have a natural right endowed by their Creator to be the first educators of their children.
Senator Pekarsky’s bill removes this religious exemption provision and requires the oversight of the state into family matters annually. Senator Pekarsky claims her bill is necessary to protect children from “neglect, abuse, and non-education of children” of presumably, incompetent and abusive home-schooling parents. To add insult to injury, the responsibility for this oversight is the public school that the family has fled because of incompetence, toxic ideologies, “neglect, abuse, and non-education” of children in the public school.
Under Pekarsky’s watch on the school board, parents witnessed a declining student population (In 2017 FCPS projected 190,632 students for school year 2022. For 24-25, there are 179,858 students), declining test scores, a decline of reputation of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science from its number one position nationally to a 2024 ranking of #14, pornography in school libraries, increase in student suicide, gangs and drugs, teaching of ideological beliefs in radical gender theory that are contrary to biological science, embracing an equity agenda contrary to justice that is divisive, persecution of students and staff who hold traditional religious beliefs with threats of discipline for not bowing to gender ideology, DEI, etc. Each school board meeting was opened by Pekarsky and her colleagues with a proclamation condemning some sort of “hate” that they identified in the Fairfax Schools. Home-schooling families can assure Senator Pekarsky that their children are not subjected to the bullying and toxic environments that the Fairfax School Board identified and condemned on a regular basis. Children do not need protection from their families. They need protection from self-appointed, virtue-signaling education saviors.
Senator Pekarsky claims:
“This exemption, that requires a one time application and approval process, creates a situation that allows for neglect, abuse and, non-education. I have heard countless testimonies from Virginians who experienced this neglect and non-education under this exemption and I cannot in good conscience ignore or invalidate their experiences.” (emphasis added).
If Senator Pekarsky provided data or even one anecdote the authenticity of this statement would be easier to judge. She claims, “I cannot in good conscience ignore or invalidate their experiences.”
But as Chairman of Fairfax School Board, Pekarsky routinely “ignore(d) and invalidate(d)” the experiences of parents and students who came to school board meetings to express their frustration at the “neglect, abuse and non-education” of their children in the hands of Fairfax Public Schools. On numerous occasions Pekarsky, often rudely, cut off the microphone of parents who were raising serious concerns either because they couldn’t express their story in the two minutes allotted or the subject matter was so offensive you didn’t want it aired in public. In a viral video, the country watched Pekarsky interrupt a woman who read and showed images from a pornographic book that was on the shelves of the Fairfax schools libraries. Pekarsky was so flustered, she recessed the board meeting and the school board sheltered in a back room for almost an hour. Four months later, Pekarsky defended the reshelving of the very book that offended her personally when she saw the images and heard the narrative, perhaps on the insistence of what her press release calls “stake-holders”.
Senator Pekarsky ends her press release with “I look forward to the ongoing dialogue with my colleagues and stakeholders through Virginia.” The use of the term “stakeholders”, instead of constituents raises many red flags. Senator Pekarsky’s campaign political scandal revealed her relationship with “4 Public Schools” (a coalition of the Teachers’ Unions, Virginia Democratic Party, Fairfax PRIDE, Fairfax NAACP) who regularly testify in opposition to anything they perceive as a threat to “public schools” funding. Home-schooling and other “school choice options” threaten the monopoly on public education. Rather than embracing all education opportunities, the public school advocates jealously protect the funding that attaches to a child who might be lost to competition.
Home-schooling families do not need the state to worry about their competence. They worry enough for themselves and have an incentive to assure competence – the success of their children. Home-schooling families have intimate daily involvement with their children’s educational development in ways that teachers in classroom settings in the public schools cannot. Teachers care about the children under their tutelage, but once they leave their classroom, the students are not their responsibilities. Teachers cannot always tell if a student has mastered a concept or skill just by looking at test scores. Parents observe competence in many ways. The records and test scores of home-school children speak for themselves. In most cases, home-schooling is superior to public schools because it has a truly individualized education plan (IEP) administered by a parent, that not only uniquely understands the child’s gifts and challenges but loves him/her enough to find creative means to use those traits to successfully educate the child.
Senator Pekarsky’s press release (attached below) states her goals for the legislation. All quotes from the Senator’s statement are in Green:
What SB 1031 does:
1. Relieves school boards of their current difficult role of both ruling on the legitimacy of a parent’s religious beliefs when they seek the exemption and assessing if the religious beliefs of the child differ from those of the parents.
Pekarsky’s contempt for religious beliefs is startling. Why should school boards or superintendents rule on the “legitimacy of a parent’s religious beliefs” or “assess if the religious beliefs of the child differ from those of the parents”? What competence do they have? But more importantly, this is an outrageous invasion of religious expression by the State. If a person signs an affidavit that they are home-schooling for religious reasons, that is tantamount to a vow with God, and the State has no place in determining the validity of a parent’s relationship with God. Further, if not contempt, what would cause a school to insert itself as family arbiter to protect children from the religious beliefs of their parents? The assumption of this role by school boards is an abusive overstep and reveals the mindsets of school board members, particularly those who use it as steppingstone to the State Senate. The First Amendment of the US Constitution (as any home-schooled child could tell you) states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. It applies to school boards as well. They are not the judge and jury of valid religious beliefs. Only the current system, where parents assert their inalienable right to religious freedom without oversight of school boards is acceptable in the Commonwealth of Virginia, founded on religious liberty.
2. Ensures that all homeschool children are treated the same, (emphasis added) regardless of whether they have a religious exemption or not.
The whole purpose of home-schooling is to ensure that children are treated with justice (to give each his due), not equity (one size fits all). Every child receives an individualized education plan (IEP) so they are not treated the same as every other children regardless of gifts and challenges.) and that their parents have the same obligation to make sure they reach certain basic levels of academic competence, (emphasis added) (The same obligation as who? The Fairfax Public schools where in the 2022-23 SOLs, 22% of children failed reading, 43% failed writing, 25% failed Math, 28% failed Science, 38% failed History? No thank you. Home school parents will not lower their standards to those of the public school. If a home school student fails, the parent reteaches the lesson until it is mastered. In the one-size-fits-all public school, the student is passed to the next grade with the “hope” that it will be learned there.
3. Makes clear that families can seek to homeschool their children based on religious beliefs, or for any other reason.
As long as “the elites” can oversee and control your family’s education.
Senator Pekarsky is not up for re-election until 2029, but all of the House of Delegates and the Executive branch are up for a vote in November of 2025. Senator Pekarsky contempt and arrogance has perhaps created the issue for this year’s campaigns. In the meantime, she is busy creating mandates for all the public schools in Virginia and will impact families in other ways.
Education Bills Report Out of Education and Health Committee (From Stella’s Scoop Second Week of Session Newsletter, January 24, 2025)
SB 738: allows school boards to develop and implement policy for restricting cell phone use in the classroom during regular school hours. Last year, Governor Youngkin announced Executive Order 33, which began the discussion on cell phone use in schools and offered non-binding recommendations on how schools can deal with this issue. This bill differs from the Governor’s policy in four key aspects:
- This bill contains explicit protections for students with Individualized Education Plans, Section 504 Plans, and other situations as determined appropriate by the school board, allowing for cell phone use to monitor or address health concerns, or serve as assistive technology.
- This bill also explicitly prohibits the suspension or expulsion of a student who violates the cell phone possession policy as removing a child from the classroom resulting in a loss of learning time is contradictory to the purpose of creating a distraction-free environment.
- The bill places the responsibility of enforcement on the administration, so as to not overburden teachers and cut into their instruction time.
- Finally, the bill requires every school board to have a policy, which they will craft with the input of their parents and community, giving them the flexibility to implement policies that best fit their system.
SB 1030: Revises the existing code requiring middle school students to receive a physical exam in the preceding 12 months before participating in athletic competition by expanding it to include elementary and secondary school students, as well as extending the time frame to the preceding 14 months. Many constituents, including parents and doctors, have reported to our office that this time frame is difficult for them. The current VHSL policy accepts physicals completed from May 1st of the current year through June 30th of the succeeding year. This creates a serious bottleneck at pediatricians’ offices in the summer and results in parents seeking appointments with practitioners who aren’t familiar with patients and are missing critical vaccination schedules. By extending the time frame in this code section and applying it to all students, families will have much more flexibility regarding when they complete their physicals.
SB 1032: Ensures a teacher with a continuing contract has the right to a salary and benefits between school years. Teachers who have earned continuing contract status, including those with decades of dedicated service, are vulnerable to termination at the end of the school year without any due process. Teachers can still be terminated through the dismissal procedures outlined in the Virginia Code. This change ensures fairness and due process, financial security for our teachers, and improves retention and morale among teachers. Veteran teachers often educate generations of students, and Virginia will lose them to neighboring states unless it provides job security through continuing contracts.
SB 1034: Mandates that teachers must be trained in instructing students who need or use Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices before the start of the school year so they can adequately work with the student. This means any form of communication other than oral speech, including gestures, facial expressions, writing, or speech-generating devices. This bill requires schools to document the individualized education program of a student with a disability who uses AAC, before providing instruction to that student, the AAC, and the communication access needs of that student. Our public schools must be ready to educate students who communicate differently from others.
SB 1035: Revises the section of the Drug Control Act related to professional use by practitioners to add “or other opioid antagonists” following each mention of naloxone, a widely used opioid antagonist. This language had already been adopted in other subsections of the law, and this code section simply had not yet been updated to add the language. Making this update will bring much needed clarity to our current law and make it easier for medical professionals to use every tool at their disposal to reverse overdoses.
SB 1048: Requires schools to send parents a reminder of the importance of safe storage for both prescription drugs and firearms. Ensuring that children have a safe environment to learn and grow both inside and outside of the classroom is essential to achieving academic excellence.
According to the Safe Kids Worldwide 2019 report, nearly 52,000 children under the age of six were treated in emergency rooms for medicine poisonings across the United States in 2017. According to the CDC, the firearm suicide rate among children and teens has increased by 66% over the past decade. In 2019, The U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center found that 76% of school shooters acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative. This reminder will be an important step in preventing unintentional deaths in children.
Pekarsky’s Senate Campaign centered around declaring war on Governor Glen Youngkin.
SB 738 is Pekarsky’s effort to neuter Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 33, which gave school districts recommendations on how schools can deal with the negative impact of student cell phone use in schools. Pekarsky is aware that the Governor’s Executive Order applies to cell-phone use for interpersonal communication and social media during the school day. Pekarsky knows that there is nothing that prevents common-sense “cell phone use to monitor or address health concerns, or serve as assistive technology” for “students with Individualized Education Plans, Section 504 Plans, and other situations.
Pekarsky is creating Governor Youngkin as a bogey man and establishing herself as the necessary protector of children from him. Her second and third points will essentially assure that any policy on cell phones in school will not be enforced.
Pekarsky’s campaign website claims as her greatest accomplishment “On the School Board, Stella led the successful lawsuit against Youngkin’s overreaching attempt to strip local control from our schools during his first week in office.”
Note that all of Pekarsky’s Education Bills are mandates to local public school system from Richmond, the very thing she claimed to oppose about Youngkin’s orders. The difference is that the mandates are now her ideas.
While on the Fairfax School Board, her nanny-state inclinations supported FCPS sending to incompetent parents “a reminder of the importance of safe storage for both prescription drugs and firearms. Ensuring that children have a safe environment to learn and grow both inside and outside of the classroom is essential to achieving academic excellence.” Pekarsky’s wisdom in SB 1048 will now be required to be sent by all schools in Virginia, even those who do not share Pekarsky’s patronizing view of parents.
parentsoutofexile 
