BY SOUMANOU SALIFOU

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin yesterday vetoed a bill that would have allowed African American history courses to count toward high school graduation requirements.

The bill, introduced in the House of Delegates by Loudoun County Del. David Reid—who is not African American—would have made it possible for parents and students to choose African American History or AP African American Studies in lieu of either World History I or World Geography, to meet the history and social studies credit requirement to graduate from high school.

In an interview with WTOP, the leading D.C. area news radio station, Reid said he introduced the piece of legislation after consulting Loudoun County Public Schools and officials of the NAACP. The delegate emphasized the fact that the new measures would have applied only to school districts that are already teaching those classes. It is not “forcing any school district to take this on as a new requirement, because we were really very sensitive about not levying an unfunded mandate.”

The governor at first amended the bill with a reenactment clause, which meant its passage this year would not be permanent, then sent it to the assembly where it cleared both chambers. Then, to the lawmakers’ and most people’s surprise, he vetoed it.

Governor Youngkin’s rationale for vetoing the bill, as relayed by his spokesperson, Peter Finocchio, is that the proposal would “replace a critical course in World History, of which [Youngkin] believes every student deserves foundational knowledge.” On the theory that “There is nothing limiting any student from taking African American History,” Finocchio said the students can take African American History “as one of the four electives required for a standard diploma.”

Del. David Reid is not deterred by the reversal. He said he plans on trying again to get the measure passed next year. He told WTOP reporters, “There’s nothing that I feel that really needs to change in the legislation, because again, it was permissive in nature that allowed parents and students to make a choice, and it allowed them to be able to recognize that Virginia history is African American history.”

Reid’s own rationale for the governor’s decision: “I can only attribute it to somewhere along the way he’s decided that it’s more important to be able to be subservient to Trump and the whole DEI effort that is going on right now as opposed to staying true to what he signed on the first day of his administration.”

Obviously, students would be more inclined to take African History classes and work hard at them if the classes could count toward their graduation requirements. Regarding the African American students, the governor’s action recalls the situation in colonial Africa when African history was totally absent from the school curriculums designed by the colonizers and children were taught about European emperors and kings, even Hitler, but knew nothing about their own history.