“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions,” declared Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe during this week’s Virginia gubernatorial debate with Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. He then added, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Youngkin put it this way: “[McAuliffe] believes that government and politicians know better for our children than parents. He wants to exclude parents from being involved in educating our children.” The following day, when asked to respond, McAuliffe actually doubled down:

Listen, we have a board of ed working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in every different school jurisdiction saying, “This is what should be taught here,” and, “This is what should be taught here.”

No, that’s exactly what parents should be demanding of their school boards. Schools work for the parents, not parents for the schools — or at least that’s how things used to work in this country. Clearly, McAuliffe, the longtime Clinton bag man, has his priorities set on placating the demands of the teachers unions, not the legitimate concerns of parents or the needs of students.

The race between McAuliffe and Youngkin has remained uncomfortably tight for the former Democrat governor, with recent polling indicating a toss-up with just over a month to Election Day. And as Youngkin has recently picked up steam in the home stretch, he has hit upon what could be the deciding issue of the election for the Republican to win the northern Virginia DC suburbs.

Loudoun County in particular has become the national epicenter for parents calling out school boards over Critical Race Theory and “transgender” ideology. Youngkin has exposed McAuliffe as the candidate opposed to parents because his loyalties lie with the teachers unions, and because he wants children indoctrinated into the ideology of the Left rather than educated on the sound principles of a classical liberal education.

Effectively, the message McAuliffe is sending to Virginia parents is I know better than you what’s best for your kids, so shut up and accept my diktats. As Youngkin insightfully notes, “[McAuliffe’s] worldview is ‘I know better than you,’ and yet it doesn’t have to apply to me. We saw it just a couple weeks ago when he’s been calling for mask mandates, and then he boards a train and violates federal law and won’t even put a mask on.”

Meanwhile, Youngkin sees this as the issue that could take him into the governor’s mansion. He has come out preaching the message of school choice, pitching a plan to significantly increase the number of charter schools in the state. Virginia currently ranks among the lowest in the country for its number of charter schools.

Many on both sides of the aisle view Virginia’s gubernatorial race as a bellwether. If McAuliffe is able to win, all the Democrats will have accomplished is to simply hold serve in an apparently solid blue state. But a Youngkin victory would turn this prevailing view on its head, serving as an ill omen for Democrats indicating just how strong are the headwinds they face in 2022.