For years, Virginia has been in desperate need of a governor who will do more than make speeches and empty promises about fixing the state’s education system. With Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s victory Nov. 4, it seems that there is hope of finally approaching the end of a long and exhausting educational decline — supporting teachers, boosting resources and modernizing assessments. But hope alone does not fix schools. For Spanberger to successfully reshape education in Virginia and establish herself as a results-driven governor, she must translate her campaign commitments on education policy into concrete action, resisting the ongoing politicization of childhood education.
While vowing change is uncomplicated, actually providing tangible improvements is much more challenging — especially in a state that has been plagued by years of educational decline. Virginia’s education system remains deeply strained, reeling from the instructional disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Education Recovery Scorecard — a joint project from professors at Stanford University and Harvard University that analyzes post-2019 efforts to return to optimal academic scores using National Assessment of Educational Progress scores — Virginia ranks 41st in reading recovery and 51st in math recovery. The Scorecard compares 42 states and Washington, D.C. This starkly contrasts with Virginia’s NAEP scores before the pandemic, which ranked higher than the national average.
Spanberger, therefore, is not inheriting momentum, but rather a system that is still trying to regain stability and return to the higher-than-average NAEP scores Virginia achieved before the pandemic. However, she appears to recognize the weight of that responsibility. One of her central campaign promises outlines a comprehensive roadmap for the state’s recovery — addressing teacher shortages, modernizing schools, increasing support for students with disabilities and more. From the outside, this list seems poised to reset, rebuild and reinvigorate classrooms in Virginia — improving educational standards for children while also restoring constituents’ trust in the system as a whole.
These promises, though, look similar to past gubernatorial terms. Outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin took office in a similar manner, with the goal of empowering parents and restoring excellence in Virginia’s schools. And while he expanded portions of the state’s education budget and signed the Virginia Literacy Act — designed to improve early literacy by requiring schools to use evidence-based reading instruction, his tenure also sowed deepening doubts surrounding the public education system. Youngkin’s administration struggled in offering support to teachers, stoked parental anxieties and shifted the focus from systemic improvement toward ideological battles, ultimately turning education topics into a political and cultural minefield. On paper, his agenda made some progress. In reality, though, academic recovery post-pandemic lagged dramatically, achievement gaps widened and education became more of a culture war than a learning mission.
If there is one lesson Spanberger should take from Youngkin’s term, it is to view his actions as a counterexample, rather than a blueprint. To rebuild the education system, she must not let her policies devolve into the next battleground of the partisan culture war. Take, for example, Spanberger’s stance on diverting funding away from voucher programs and resisting efforts to privatize public education. On the surface, it seems clear what her plan is — preserving public education funding and rebuilding trust in the system. However, that plan will lose integrity if it becomes just the political antithesis of Youngkin for politicization’s sake without substantial change. A meaningful change in public school education does not just materialize from a simple slogan that says “no” to privatization, but rather, a demonstration of why public schools deserve investment.
Another potential pitfall is Spanberger’s plan to uphold academic excellence by modernizing the Standards of Learning assessments. While ambitious on the surface, updating assessments needs to be matched with tangible updates to student resources, teacher support and time to implement these changes. Spanberger has gestured toward these priorities, but materializing them into real reforms is imperative. Without those changes, the SOL assessments will be better suited to gauge how well students can withstand another policy misstep rather than measuring their learning levels.
These drawbacks are not to undermine Spanberger’s optimism, but rather, to highlight similar policy errors that have set Virginia back before. If Virginians are ever going to trust the public school education system again, then the system must be deserving of that trust. The Spanberger administration must focus on tangible results, true transparency and accountability. Children’s education — one of the most fundamental pillars of our nation — cannot be just another pawn in the political sphere. Spanberger, therefore, must be willing to defend her plans even when they become politically inconvenient. If she succeeds in steadfastly fighting for her vision, Virginia will not just talk about fixing the education system. It will finally do it.
Gov.-elect Spanberger, do not let your education plan collect dust once the campaign confetti settles. Do not use education as a weapon that leaves students as collateral. Do not be just another governor who talks about fixing Virginia's public education — be the governor who actually succeeds.
Lucy Duttenhofer is an opinion columnist who writes about academics for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the authors alone.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Trust in U.Va.’s governance begins with candor
By Editorial Board | YesterdayWhen transparency becomes a tool rather than a principle, governance itself becomes a performance rather than a practice.
KING: Backroom agreements have no place at U.Va.
By Michael King | November 28, 2025The University’s agreement with the Trump administration reeks not only because of its terms, but also for the method in which it was composed.
A statement from 181 concerned faculty on the Faculty Senate’s Nov. 14 resolution
By Concerned Faculty | November 24, 2025Continuing the search now would be all the proof needed to conclude that the Board and Mahoney are acting not in the University’s best interests but pursuant to some other agenda, if further proof were needed.
