First public hearing for Virginia’s proposed history standards set for Monday at the Jamestown Settlement

The first of six public hearings on the commonwealth’s proposed revised social studies standards is set for 7 p.m. Monday at the Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg.

Registration will begin at 6:30 p.m. Speakers will have three minutes before the Virginia Board of Education, and are asked to bring copies of their comments.

Virginia law requires standards for each subject to be reviewed at least once every seven years. The social studies standards have been a source of controversy since August, when education officials pulled an original draft that experts had spent months developing.

A largely re-written second draft was released in November, which included input from American University, Hillsdale College, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett. That draft drew extensive criticism for seemingly throwing out months of work crafting the original draft, as well as for omitting Martin Luther King Jr. Day from the standards and referring to Indigenous communities as immigrants, mistakes for which the Department of Education later apologized.

A third draft, which includes elements of both earlier drafts, was released early this year and approved for first review by the Board of Education in February.

The five other hearings will be held at locations across Virginia through March 21. Public comments can also be submitted online at doe.virginia.gov until then.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com