Pence wades into school debate roiling Va governor’s race

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday hailed activist parents who are decrying school curriculums as un-American, equating instruction on the effects of institutional racism with “state-sponsored racism” and warning that such efforts might “indoctrinate” children.

The fight over schools has become a flashpoint in the Virginia governor’s race, where polls show a dead heat between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. In his speech at Patrick Henry College, a Christian university about 50 miles outside Washington in Loudoun County, Pence echoed many of the criticisms Youngkin has made central to his campaign and praised activists in the surrounding suburbs for propelling a “movement spreading all across the country.”

“The eyes of the nation are on Loudoun County,” Pence told a crowd of hundreds in a gymnasium…. (Excerpts from the Associated Press via the Ravalli Republic)