Facebook: Aucoin for School Board
Twitter: @Aucoin4Schools

1. I want to rebuild Fairfax County Public School System’s reputation as one of academic excellence by raising standards, recruiting and retaining the best teachers, promoting meritocracy and taking politics out of the schools.

2. I want to bring balance, more transparency, and accountability to the School Board, that has been dominated by one party and its ideology. We need a Board that more reflects the community and incorporates other perspectives, increases transparency with longer public comment periods and restores accountability to families and taxpayers.

1. Declining academic achievement performance and learning loss as a result of no in-person learning during COVID. I will call for schools to identify and increase teaching time for those students who are underperforming in reading, math, and science. I will call for an audit of the $3.5 billion budget and the reallocation of funds from offices and programs that do not specifically benefit children, have grown disproportionately, or have exceeded what is necessary for the education and safety of the students. We need to get back to the fundamentals of reading, math, and writing. We need to improve student scientific knowledge.

2. Empower parents to be involved in the education of their children. I will call for the affirmation of parental involvement in their children’s education in accordance with Virginia law, that school policies be reviewed to include parent engagement and notification, (e.g., when their child is experiencing gender dysphoria), and that the school board work with parents to find ways to rebuild trust with the school administration and school board.

Yes, I support school choice. Parents should have the freedom to select the sort of education (e.g., private, religious, homeschool, public) that they want for their children. Children and families should not be forced to stay in failing schools. So, I am open to a variety of innovative strategies to make this happen, including Education Spending Accounts, tax credit, vouchers, educational scholarships, and charter schools, which do not take away from public education. Additionally, I think that because they will encourage competition, these paths for education can strengthen the system of public education.

Parents.

I disagree. While some people may have racist sentiments, there are no institutional racial barriers in our government, healthcare, or educational systems. Successful efforts to break down barriers can be traced to the United States Constitution's writing, with the adoption of the Northwest Ordinance, and landmark civil rights rulings such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Loving v. Virginia. Although our nation has come a long way, in recent years, the issue of race has dominated political discourse and permeated our educational system to the point where barriers are being created, affecting primarily Asian and Caucasian students.

I do not support these being a part of the school curriculum. The focus needs to be education and keeping politics and political agendas out of the classroom and focus on achieving higher test scores and better grades for all. Sex Education should be only taught from a health and scientific perspective. Any further discussion of sex education should be from the parents as they would teach from their own family values. Similarly with Social Emotional Learning, parents are the governors of their children’s upbringing and should be the guides for their children’s emotional growth. If behavioral or emotional difficulties arise at schools, the school must involve parents immediately in the process. DEI should not be promoted by the schools because it goes against the ideas of merit achievement, that everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed and having basic respect for everyone.

Please refer to my response to question 2, which would be the immediate restoration work to be done. For longer term solutions, I would urge an assessment of the ways in which these courses are taught and search for innovative methods to improve student instruction and prepare children for whatever future pathway they choose.

I will support the 2023 Model Policies that the Virginia Department of Education released but which the current Fairfax County School Board has rejected and will not adopt. These Model Policies’ support bathroom and locker rooms use based on biological sex and I would advocate for a rule that prohibits boys from using facilities designated for girls. Also, I would advocate for anti-bullying policies that encourage girls and boys to report bullying to a teacher, administrator, or parent. Unfortunately, there are more cases of girls bullying other girls.

Yes, I do. Girls have made great progress in competitive sports since Title IX was originally introduced, offering them possibilities to obtain collegiate scholarships that will open doors for their future. It’s a false narrative that a biological boy who identifies as a girl may fairly compete with biological girls. With the most recent Department of Education plan, which would force schools to create sport-specific standards and possibly permit biological boys to play on girls' teams and use girls' locker rooms, we have entered an unfair and unsafe scenario. I don't want to abandon the years of effort that went into enabling females to participate in and succeed in sports. I want to make sure they are safe. We need to reverse course and keep Title IX as it was originally intended.

Fairfax Republican Committee, American Hindu Coalition, Matt Troung, Vietnamese American Community Leader