Meg Bryce, a daughter of the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who has said there’s a need for “an openness” about whether there is systemic racism in America, is the newest member of the State Board of Education.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin named Bryce to the state’s top policy-making body for schools, which she joined for its meeting on Wednesday.
![Meg Bryce](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=150%2C110 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=200%2C147 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=225%2C166 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=300%2C221 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=400%2C295 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=540%2C398 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=640%2C471 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/8f/88f4f6ea-49e3-11ef-9098-13c08c413b86/66a13c4d480ae.image.jpg?resize=706%2C520 750w)
Bryce
“Her extensive background in education, her advocacy for student-centered policies, and her commitment to restoring common sense in education for all Virginia students will be instrumental in ensuring that every parent, student, and teacher receives the essential resources and support needed to thrive,” Youngkin press secretary Christian Martinez said.
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Last year Bryce lost a bid for a seat on the Albemarle County School Board by 62% to 37%, after denying her opponent’s charges that she wanted to ban books and whitewash history.
During that campaign, at a virtual candidate forum hosted by the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP, Bryce said: “When we talk about systemic racism, I think that there needs to be an openness about, you know, not everybody agrees that there is systemic racism. And it has to be OK for people to disagree about that,” according to a report by the Daily Progress newspaper of Charlottesville.
![NAACP virtual forum](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=150%2C83 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=200%2C110 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=225%2C124 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=300%2C165 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=400%2C220 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=540%2C297 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=640%2C352 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=750%2C413 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=990%2C545 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C569 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C660 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C733 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/8f/c8f54f9f-1b45-50d7-80ce-5021d8f235f0/652e7d115a5c2.image.jpg?resize=1440%2C792 1476w)
Albemarle County School Board candidate Meg Bryce, a daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, speaks during a virtual forum hosted by the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP on Oct. 9, 2023.
“It has to be OK for some people to be able to say, ‘Well, I do recognize that racism exists and there are racist people in the system. I don’t agree that there is systemic racism,’” Bryce continued. “And I don’t think somebody should be shamed into silence for expressing that.”
Bryce said she sought the school board seat to encourage academic rigor in county schools and ensure transparency, adding that she was driven to run after she and her husband decided to pull their children out of public schools.
She is a part-time instructor in psychology at the University of Virginia, where she earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology.
Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Albemarle, former chair of the county’s school board, said in a social media post: “You know what’s easier to win than an Albemarle County School Board seat? An unearned appointment to the State Board of Education from Gov. Youngkin.”
Callsen added in a post on social platform X, formerly Twitter: “Today starts Meg Bryce’s term on the Board and while I’m disappointed, I am not shocked that the Governor would rather appoint a failed Moms for Liberty candidate over someone that has a record of support for public education” she said. Bryce has denied she was supported by or connected with Moms for Liberty.
Del. Amy Laufer, D-Charlottesville, the former chair of the Charlottesville City School Board, called Bryce’s appointment an “attack on public education.”
“Meg Bryce’s appointment is yet another reminder that we should be concerned by the number of appointments the Governor has made who do not support the mission of the board they are being appointed to.”
The Virginia Education Association also criticized Bryce’s appointment.
“The appointment of Meg Scalia Bryce to the Virginia Board of Education is yet one more example in a long list of shortsighted, politically motivated decisions that serves to advance Gov. Youngkin’s anti-public education agenda while further endangering LGBTQIA+ students in the Commonwealth,” said VEA president James Fedderman in a statement.
Terms of two of Youngkin’s appointees to the nine-member board expired June 30: Dale Sturdifen, field director for Rep. Bob Good and a retired Virginia State Police officer who served for eight years on the Mecklenburg County School Board, and H. Alan Seibert, constituent services and government relations officer for Roanoke City Public Schools.
Bryce will represent the state Department of Education’s Region 5. Neither Sturdifen nor Seibert is from that region. State law requires that the nine-member board include representatives from at least five regions.
Former Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton is the only member of the board who was not appointed by Youngkin. The wife of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., she is a professor of education policy at George Mason University.
The board’s responsibilities include setting statewide curriculum standards; establishing high school graduation requirements; deciding what qualifications teachers must have, and establishing state testing, assessment and accreditation programs.
Antonin Scalia, who President Ronald Reagan appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986, died in 2016. He was on the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law from 1967 to 1974.
Virginia political figures react to Biden leaving presidential race
Former House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn
President Biden has been an incredible and historically successful president.
— Eileen Filler-Corn (@EFillerCorn) July 21, 2024
He took us from pandemic to recovery, restored trust in our government, strengthened our alliances, and delivered remarkable results for the American people. His selflessness will be remembered as a… https://t.co/N43RNHbykU
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics
Tough decision. Right decision. #BidenDroppingOut
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) July 21, 2024
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney
.@JoeBiden has been the most impactful president in my lifetime.
— Mayor Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) July 21, 2024
I have the utmost respect for the President’s decision and have been in his corner since day one.
Thank you for your leadership Mr. President. Let’s come together and elect Vice President @KamalaHarris. https://t.co/yGJaUp726m
State Sen. L. Louise Lucas
President Biden’s leadership rescued our country from one of the darkest periods in our history- a failing economy, a pandemic worsened by our leadership and a democracy in peril. I want to personally express my gratitude for all that he has done for our country.
— L. Louise Lucas (@SenLouiseLucas) July 21, 2024
U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11th
President Joe Biden, a man I revere, has cemented himself among the most consequential Presidents in American history.
— Rep. Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) July 21, 2024
Mr. President, for your years of service, your dedication to our country, and for the millions of Americans who are better off because of you, we thank you.
U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th
Thank you, @JoeBiden, for your service to the American people.
— Jennifer McClellan (@JennMcClellanVA) July 21, 2024
I fully endorse @KamalaHarris as our Democratic nominee. pic.twitter.com/L0r6lOJ82q
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
This nation owes Joe Biden a debt of gratitude for putting everything on hold to run in 2020 and taking the reins as President during a particularly turbulent time. He charted a bright path forward for our nation after four tumultuous years under the former administration.…
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) July 21, 2024
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
As I have been saying for weeks, President @JoeBiden is a patriotic American who has always put the needs of our country ahead of himself. For more than five decades, he has served this country admirably as a Senator, Vice President, and now President. His decision today reflects…
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) July 21, 2024
Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin
Make no mistake, whether it’s border czar Kamala Harris or someone else, it’s the Biden/Harris Adminstration’s weak leadership and resulting chaos around the world and here at home that is on the ballot this November. It’s time for our nation to now come together with resolve to…
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) July 21, 2024
Virginia Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon
As Vice President Harris' 2020 Virginia Cochair, I wholly support this endorsement and second it! https://t.co/aIGlD1AG1P
— Senator Scott Surovell (@ssurovell) July 21, 2024
Virginia Young Dems
VAYD thanks @JoeBiden and look forward to electing our Democratic nominee in November. pic.twitter.com/GG7Gyk959N
— Virginia Young Dems (@VAYD) July 21, 2024