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Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger
Spanberger and Sears use their predecessor’s actions against each other on the campaign trail
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger blamed Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration Wednesday when she highlighted recent reporting from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that shows Virginia ranks 51st in the U.S. — behind all other states and Washington D.C. — in math recovery between 2019 and 2024, based on scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears took a jab at Spanberger in response and blamed Democrats’ handling of COVID-19 school closures.
The rankings from researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities, along with the RTD’s reporting, show how Virginia’s math scores have dropped drastically in recent years.
“In fourth-grade math, Virginia fell from No. 2 in the nation in 2019 to No. 20 in the nation in 2024. In eighth grade math, Virginia ranked 22nd nationally in 2024, down from No. 5 in 2019,” the data shows.
“Unless state and local leaders step up now, the achievement losses will be the longest lasting– and most inequitable– legacy of the pandemic,” said one of the project leaders, Professor Tom Kane from Harvard, about the Virginia numbers.
Youngkin, who ran on improving education in Virginia, did not provide comment in the RTD story.
His Secretary of Education, Aimee Guederra, commented and said that Virginia is “raising all of our definitions of proficiency, our rigor, our standards and our requirements.”
“That's leadership and that's doing the right thing by our kids,” she continued. “Yes, it's frustrating that it takes long to get real change to happen, but it's the right strategy and the right way to go.”
Spanberger, in a statement Wednesday, blamed Youngkin’s administration for the poor performance.
