This isn't to say that these officials don't care about these children, but that they are disinterested in taking on the tough work needed to overhaul districts and schools in order provide kids with the schools they deserve —
which includes challenging the soft bigotry of
low expectations for poor and minority kids held by far too many adults working in American public education in Virginia and the rest of the nation, and the affiliates of the National Education Association
which has succeeded for so long in
keeping the Old Dominion's status quo quite ante.