Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin's gubernatorial victory in Virginia in November 2021, widely credited to his promise to restore parental rights in public schools in the Democratic-leaning state, set off panic in the national education establishment.
Newly disclosed records reveal the American Federation of Teachers hired a prominent Democratic pollster the following month to survey parents and devise messaging to shore up AFT's weaknesses – particularly by tarring dissenting parents as racists – and shared it with a senior Department of Education official.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Montserrat Garibay, who came to the feds from the Texas chapter of the AFL-CIO, which counts AFT as an affiliate, is all over the first two-thirds of the 416-page Freedom of Information Act production.
It was obtained by the government watchdog Functional Government Initiative through a lawsuit filed against the department nearly two years ago.