Public school defender Ghazala Hashmi takes on right-wing radio’s Reid for lieutenant governor

This story first appeared in Dogwood

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, a mom of two daughters, is clear about the choice Virginians face when they go to the polls this November.

Do they want to destroy their public schools—ranked the fourth-best in the country—or make them better?

Hashmi, chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee and a candidate for lieutenant governor, told Dogwood she is “fully committed to protecting public education for all Virginia schools.”

She spent 30 years as an educator, first as a literature professor at the University of Richmond and then at Reynolds Community College before her election to the Senate in 2020. She now represents the 15th District.

While at Reynolds, she also served as the founding director of Virginia’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, which provides educators with tools to improve their teaching.

In short, Hashmi has extensive experience in education, working with students, teachers and parents.

Her Republican opponent, John Reid, is a longtime conservative radio talk show host with no children, who has declared that Virginia’s public schools are “a disaster.”

His message to Virginians: “I say, we break the whole system and start over … with vouchers to let people send their kids to their own choice!!!”

Reid aligns himself with Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who are pushing to move Virginia tax dollars away from local public schools so higher-income families can pay for private schooling.

One example: Youngkin has proposed a $50 million Virginia Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program to cover textbooks, transportation and other expenses for students whose families decide to send them to private schools.

The problem, Hashmi said, is that “most of our private school tuitions are upwards of $10,000 to $15,000 or even $20,000 a year. It’s hard to believe that a family already struggling to make ends meet could use $5,000 to enroll their child in private school and come up with the rest.”

State Democrats argue that multimillionaire Youngkin—whose estimated net worth is $540 million—is out of touch with the economic realities of families who qualify for free school lunches.

Hashmi, who emigrated from India at age 4, attended public schools her entire life. Her two grown daughters also attended public schools.

She warns that if Virginians elect Reid and Earle-Sears, both supporting school vouchers, “the Commonwealth would be on the road to dismantling their own public education system. Sadly, we’re seeing other Southern states going down that route.”

Earle-Sears has voiced support for joining Donald Trump’s national school voucher program, created in his “Big Beautiful Bill.”

The Virginia Education Association estimates the state could lose between $222 million and $956 million in public school funding under such a plan—money taken from the state’s more than 1.2 million students.

As seen in Arizona and Wisconsin, vouchers often benefit families who can already afford private school, Hashmi said. Public school funding, which is based on enrollment, declines as students leave for private schools, harming those who remain.

“That’s the critical part of why the voucher system destroys public education,” she said.

Reid, however, has said he wants to replace the entire public school system with vouchers for private and religious schools, without explaining how enough school seats would be available in rural areas where few alternatives exist.

“John Reid is fully committed to defunding public education. He’s made that clear,” Hashmi told the Dogwood. “That’s a very dangerous route. We know Virginians actually value and love their schools.”

Virginia’s strong public schools are a major reason the state ranked fourth in CNBC’s 2025 “Top States for Business.”

As a parent, Hashmi said she saw firsthand that her daughters were “exposed to the critical skills in reading, writing and thinking they needed to be successful in college” while in public school.

For Democrats, she added, “the No. 1 priority in our budget is education,” so that “every child has the opportunity to develop their own passions—whether it’s in STEM fields or the performing arts.”

This November, Hashmi warned, it is more important than ever to elect candidates who will protect public school funding—especially with Trump’s plan to close the US Department of Education and turn over responsibility to the states.

Ninety percent of American students, and 95% of students with disabilities, attend public schools. Without federal support, states like Virginia would need to fill funding gaps to avoid layoffs of teachers, reductions in reading specialists and ballooning class sizes.

Virginia parents also need to decide if they want schools dragged into culture wars. Reid has falsely claimed public schools promote “leftist indoctrination” and says there is no biological basis for transgender existence.

His “Academic Excellence Agenda” calls for restricting bathrooms and locker rooms to “biological sex. Period.” He also wants to ban “DEI mandates” in K-12 curricula, though he has not specified what those mandates are, and claims schools lack discipline without citing evidence.

By contrast, Hashmi’s running mate, Democrat Abigail Spanberger—a mother of three public school students—has urged taking politics out of classrooms.

“Efforts to hurt or vilify kids, particularly LGBTQ kids, as political pawns—it’s unacceptable,” Spanberger said in an interview with the Dogwood.

Spanberger has released a “Strengthening Virginia Schools” plan to improve public schools and protect higher education from political interference.

Hashmi supports that effort, especially in light of Trump’s recent attacks on the University of Virginia, where both her daughters studied. Trump forced out UVA President James Ryan and is now targeting George Mason University President Gregory Washington.

“This is an unprecedented level of attack,” Hashmi said. “We’ve never seen our federal government come into a state, attack our institutions and try to claim authority over their work. I’ve talked to so many people who are outraged—and it doesn’t matter which side of the political spectrum they’re on.”