The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Mom Suparna Dutta on Being Booted From Education Board, Called ‘White Supremacist’ After Defending Constitution

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Suparna Dutta says she thought the exceptional nature of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence “was common sense,” but her recent experience with the Virginia Board of Education proved otherwise.  Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Dutta—a mother, engineer, and Indian immigrant—to the Virginia Board of Education in July.  “I was thrilled and very honored to be appointed by him as a voice of parent advocacy to the board,” Dutta says.  But the Virginia state Senate blocked Dutta’s appointment to the board just one week after she defended the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and criticized socialism and communism during a board meeting. She was even accused of being "aligned with white supremacists" for her views on America's founding documents. The Privileges and Elections Committee of the state Senate originally voted to confirm Dutta to the Virginia Board of Education, but after she defended the founding documents, Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi introduced an amendment to remove Dutta from the board. “I do believe that the founding of this nation was something remarkable,” Dutta says, adding that “the documents that were drawn up, starting with the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution, first and foremost, put the unalienable rights and our individual freedom first and foremost.” Dutta joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share her story of being kept off the Virginia Board of Education, and to explain the ways in which woke ideology has influenced school boards and education across the country. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, February 15th. I'm Virginia Allen. Suparna Dutta was set to join the Virginia Board of Education, but the Virginia State Senate voted to reject her appointment to the board. Why? Well, it appears they blocked her because of her positive views of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and her opposition to communism and socialism. Deta joins the Daily Cigital podcast today to share her story and discuss the ways in which woke ideology has influenced school boards across the country. Stay tuned for our conversation after this. For over 35 years, the Heritage Foundation Job Bank has been helping conservatives at all professional levels

find employment in key positions in Washington, D.C. and across the country. We can help you connect with positions in the administration on Capitol Hill, in public policy organizations, and in the private sector. To learn more about the Heritage Foundation Job Bank, go to heritage.org slash job dash bank. It's my pleasure today to welcome to the show, Virginia Mother, Engineer, and the co-founder of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Siparna Deta. Siparna, thank you so much for being here today.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, this is a real pleasure. Now, when we think back to the summer, July, Virginia Governor Glenn Yonkin, he appointed you to be on the Virginia Board of Education. But just recently, after you voiced opposition to socialism and you expressed support for the Constitution and the Declaration, you were denied a seat at the table of that board. And I want to get to that conversation in just a minute and kind of walk through what exactly happened and why it happened. But first, I'd love to hear from you why you think that Governor Glenn Yonkin chose you and said, yes, I think Soparna is a perfect fit for the Virginia Board of Education. Thanks, Virginia.

And I think, you know, back in summer of 2020 is when there was a lot of turmoil going on in the nation, summer of 2020. That's when there was a lot of spread of the concept of deal. DEI all over the country. And I think educators and principals were sending out emails to parents. And Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is considered to be by U.S. News report consistently the number one public school in the country. And it used to have a standardized admissions, race-blind, merits-based test. and it was a majority, you know, minority majority school, 73% Asian and, you know, more than 85% were non-white.

If that matters at all for some people, it doesn't matter to me. You know, let the child who wants to be, you know, encouraged and challenged by a rigorous curriculum. Get into the school, and it is a governor's school, school for the gifted. And what they decided, the principal and in the school board, they decided that it didn't match the demographic, the racial demographic of the county. And it was pretty unfair, in their opinion. And then Secretary of Education, Arthur F. Carney used a simple diversity reporting that was passed by the Assembly that year to completely dismantle the standardized test to T.J., as we call it. And so a bunch of us parents found solace with each other and we got together. We contacted our local officials, board of supervisors, state delegates, state senators,

anyone who was willing to hear us. And we thought it would be just a question of trying to convince them, hey, look, you know, these students are the best. They are the future. We are future leaders, scientists, et cetera. But there was consistently a pattern of, you know, cheering back and getting sympathy from one side of the aisle, the right side of the aisle. And then when Governor Glenn Yonkin won the primary in 2021, we reached out to him and he reached right back to us. And he supported us.

And that's when I said that, you know, I would support him. And we also did reach out to McColliffe's camp. And I think what we heard back was that they wanted $25,000 for a one-hour Zoom meeting. But governor then candidate Glenn Yonkin said that he would be happy to meet with us. He gave us an entire evening. And it was like a town hall. And it was fantastic. And we, you know, worked with him.

and I thought that it was fantastic that he supported the cause of meritocracy, and academic excellence. So that's where, you know, we started reaching out to him. And then, you know, he asked, his campaign asked me to be the elite, the educators for Youngkin Coalition. And I was very happy to do that. And then, you know, it was, we had a lot of webinars, reached out to lots of people, independent people, you know, reached out back to us. And then it was just fantastic

when Governor Yonkin, you know, he won the race. And then, and I was thrilled and very honored to be appointed by him as a voice of parent advocacy to the board. So that's the story. Excellent. No, thank you for sharing that. It's very helpful just to know that background and how that relationship developed and of course Governor Yonkin I think saw in you something that's so critical to have real representation on any education board that is representation from parents, from those who are involved not just in a community sense but also because your kids are in school and you have a vested interest in furthering education. So I know that you are looking forward to joining this board but I want to talk through what happened just in recent weeks.

So it was about a week before you were going to be confirmed to the Virginia Board of Education. And you were in a board meeting with a number of other members, and a conversation came up about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as well as socialism and communism. And there were some remarks made by another board member, Annie Holton. She actually is the wife of Virginia Democrat Senator Tim Cain. And she said that she was not comfortable with calling the Constitution and the Declaration remarkable documents. I want to go ahead and take a listen to those remarks that she made. To an audience as inclusive as our Virginia is, you cannot reference the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as remarkable documents. without also acknowledging that they contain fundamental flaws of enshrining slavery

and limiting the protections that they provided for only to white property men. I just, I can't, I'm not comfortable with that language. I'm not comfortable with the language of centralized government planning in the form of socialism or communist political systems is incompatible with democracy. I would, I would concede on communism, but there are plenty of governments that call them, themselves socialist democratic governments. And then Siparna, you responded with these comments. Let's go ahead and play this per Fox News.

The declaration and the Constitution, I think there are remarkable documents. I do not believe the Declaration and Constitution enshrined slavery, not did they limit protections to white property men. As far as the socialism or communist. I think socialism is just about as bad as communism. Socialism is like the nanny state. So, Siparna, why did you choose to speak up? Why did you say, no, I'm going to defend the Constitution,

and I'm going to defend, defend the declaration here? What I found odd was that nobody else stepped up. I thought that was common sense. and I just could not take it. There's a reason. I'm a very proud immigrant. I came to this country, believing it to be the land of meritocracy, believing it to have equal protection under the law,

treating everybody on giving every single person equal opportunity and equal liberty. And so I do believe that the founding of this nation was something remarkable, it's something very different. and then the documents that were drawn up, you know, starting with the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution first and foremost put the, you know, unalienable rights and our individual freedom first and foremost. And then it also put into place a system of checks and balances. And then, of course, the fantastic amendments. So, and I, that's what has made this

country what it is. So great. and, you know, the only superpower right now, I don't think since then or, you know, any, there are any such founding documents in the whole world. So I thought that I had to jump in and I had to say that, no, it does not enshrine slavery. I think it enshrines individual liberty and freedoms. And I didn't believe that it actually limited protection only to white-propertyed men, which is what she claims or claimed. And so I thought that I had to jump in and say something. Another thing that she said, I think, that she objected to the word socialism as a political system, which is incompatible with, you know, the preface to the standards had that, you know,

socialism and communist, communist political systems are incompatible with democracy and individual freedoms. And she wanted the word socialism removed. And I thought, you know, I come from a country which used to be, you know, it was founded as a socialist country. And I think that socialism really robs people of their individual liberty. And it replaces a group rights over individual rights. And I just looked up what, you know, just in Encyclopedia Britannica last night, I was looking it up and said, okay, what is really?

socialism as defined commonly. And it says it's a doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. And I'll read one more line that as socialists see it, true freedom and true equality require social control of the resources that provide the basis for prosperity in any society. I've seen in India how it is what you can do with the simple phone call in this country requires hours and hours of, you know, standing in lines or, you know, knocking doors there to get it done. So I do not believe that I think, and I think at the school board meeting, I said that socialism is just an euphemism for communism, which I do believe. She also mentioned that in comments to the school board, she said that

some rules are best served by the centralized government. I don't agree with that. Yeah. What happened in the boardroom after that exchange? Did you all talk again? Did anyone else chime in? Did things feel pretty tense in the room? Yeah.

You know, we have had a lot of contentious discussions since August of 2022, which is when the first history standards of learning were unveiled and it's since then that I have been speaking out and I've been speaking out completely against those standards of learning. They saw, they, you know, talked about everything from a lens of race, and it was very unfortunate. And so since August of 2022, I've been speaking out, they have these themes and concepts everywhere in the standards where for history, for example, they would, they defined freedom in

terms of power, you know, like power to act without hindrance or restraint through agency and advocacy rather than in terms of like the traditional American values of individual liberty and economic freedom subject to due process under law. And then it talked about, it highlighted, you know, which I think are questionable concepts like conflict and power relationships. And it highlighted colonialism, imperialism, servitude, and enslavement. It's just everything was just laced with that. And that's what I said again. Yeah, yeah.

Well, just a handful of days after that exchange took place, the Virginia Senate, they blocked your appointment to the board. Why do you think they blocked you? Virginia, Virginia, which is interesting, is that January 31st, it's the night before that school board meeting, this vote was taken in the privileges and elections committee in the Senate. And that has 10 Democrats and four Republicans. And it passed unanimously. So we were all voted unanimously the night before the meeting. and then just one week after the exchange on February 7th, they all slipped. And I think that I refuse to partake of group think.

I wanted to, you know, I have my own independent thinking. And I thought that really on the board, each of us were, you know, was equal. I didn't think that she was the wife of a powerful senator, and it shouldn't matter. You know, I was just as equal as she was. So maybe not. So I think so then that day, Senator Gazala Hashemi introduced an amendment, I think, as J-276 to remove my name. And she first said that I was not fit.

And then when that was challenged, she said that I aligned with white supremacist. And that basically she maligned me and slandered me as a white supremacist. So, and not a single, not a single Democrat senator questioned her, including my own Senator, Chap Peterson. Nobody questioned her. And it was pretty amazing. It just feels, could this really be the country? immigrated to. Yeah, I mean, what was running through your head when you learned that the senators

had, the senator had called you a white supremacist? I could not. I thought it was so completely absurd that it, it, it couldn't be true. And then if it were true that she had, that it was just such a smear campaign. And now I understand that it started on the social, media and she peddled these lies on the floor of the Senate. So I was, I was shocked. I was, I was, I was, I was, I, I couldn't understand how this could happen in America. You know, it's just, I guess, it was my first taste. Sure, sure. I mean, what do you think that this says about the state of, a public education today? And the folks that are so often in control or that have a lot of power within our public institutions such as education? That's a great question because I think, you know, this is not about me. This is about a parent

challenging the status quo. This is about a parent saying that I need the best education for my child. What you are giving and shown by the declining NAEP scores, the nation's report card, and also the standards of learning score, assessment scores, clearly something is going down the wrong way. And since June of 2020, I've been watching the Fairfax County School Board meetings. Not once did I hear them talk about academic excellence or even education. It was about things that parents didn't want, didn't care about. It was about speech policing. It was about fringe things that parents don't care about. We want a good, wholesome education for our kids. And we, we we understand that, you know, there are some very powerful vested interests.

The teachers' unions are very powerful. And public education, unfortunately, is such a monopoly, you know, that it's a David versus Goliath situation where parents are just, you know, poor little Davids. Sopana, how old are your kids? And after this experience, would you still be comfortable with them attending the public schools? No. So my daughter was in high school. Yeah, she was a, I believe, a junior back then.

And after all of that, we tried looking for a private school for her, tried taking her out. Unfortunately, no private schools would take a senior. And my son was a freshman at that time. And then, you know, we struggled for a couple of years. And then I, it was just very, it was not just the things that they were learning. It was also the things that they were not learning. You know, on back to school night at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, I asked the, I asked a question that the social studies curriculum was completely, it was all.

about oppression and marginalized and dispossessed the history of the dispossessed. And I said, you know, maybe this ought not to be the focus. There ought to be a complete history. And I don't think he liked that comment very much. And so it was heartbreaking and even in English. In fact, I found later when I was cleaning my son's room as a friend. this was this was what he was given as in English class okay this is not even social studies and what this has it talks about how can identity be changed how much do my

mistakes relate to my identity how can literature shape explore and address identity so this is I found it in his room when I was cleaning and there were also, and this is from Langley High School, just last October, I don't know if you can see it, but this is in a Spanish class. And what this talks about is it talks about social identity groups and talks about identify the memberships that you claim or those ascribe to you and then talks about marginalized group and privileged group, defining them as, you know, marginalized being disenfranchised and exploited, privileged being those that whole unearned privilege in society. So this is what is being taught to our children. This is so,

so incorrect, so bad for the psyche of our children. Really, parents need to pay, you know, they're overworked, they're tired, but, you know, they have to see what's going on in there, and the pandemic did provide a very good view of what's going on. And I have so many more examples to tell you, but I know you don't have time for that. Well, we'd love to go through each and everyone, because it is wild to see how in the classroom kids are being really funneled into these boxes based on skin color, background, nationality. Now, what are you doing moving forward? Because I think for so many parents, it just feels overwhelming. It's like, what is my role? And you were taking action. You were being a part of the Virginia Board of Education.

What a great avenue to have influence. But you were blind. blocked from that. So what's your path forward? You know, and this was a volunteer position. I wasn't earning anything. I was taking my time off from my work to go to Richmond and attend those meetings, and I tried to do my due diligence before every meeting, and I would talk to parents, gifted education, special education, all, you know, teachers and experts and get their opinion before, you know, while preparing for the school board meetings. So I, I think. thought that I think that they have lost the perspective of a parent. I think I was the outsider there because I questioned everything. I think if I had to do it again, would I do it all

over again? I think I would, yes. I think we have a duty towards children, our children. If we don't advocate for our children, no one will. No one will know. Such a call to be involved. Siparna, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate your voice and your willingness just to share your story and really kind of take us inside behind the scenes of what is happening in some areas of public education. May I add one last thing, Virginia? Please do.

Okay. I just also want to say that as part of the written comments to the school board members, what Anne Hulton, Ms. Holton also said something that I was very shocked. You know, there was a line in there which talked about that students, which I agree with, students should be exposed to the facts of our past, even when these facts are uncomfortable. Yes. Of course. Teachers should engage students in age-appropriate ways that do not suggest students are responsible for historical wrongs based on

immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity, which I think is common sense. Wouldn't you think so? I would think so. So Ms. Hulton wanted to remove that complete last line, which said that that do not suggest that students are responsible for historical wrongs based on immutable characteristics. What does that tell you? That is CRT. Superna, do you plan to continue speaking out on this issue? If I'm asked to, yes, I will. I mean, I think that. that parents, maybe many parents still don't know what's going on in classrooms. So yeah, sure.

Excellent. Well, again, thank you so much for your time today. We truly appreciate it. Thank you, Virginia. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here at the Daily Signal podcast. If you haven't had the chance already, be sure to check out our evening show right here in your podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. Also, make sure, to subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you like to listen to podcasts. We love hearing your feedback. And every time you leave one of those ratings and reviews, it helps us spread the word and reach more listeners. Thanks again for joining us today. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

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