Citing FOIA exemptions, the Youngkin administration is withholding hundreds of pages of documents

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Graham Moomaw Retweeted

Why are Virginia education leaders discussing policy with a research fellow from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute? That's what I wanted to know. But state agencies are withholding documents under exemptions to the state's FOIA laws.

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Citing FOIA exemptions, the Youngkin administration is withholding hundreds of pages of documents -...
Gov. Glenn Youngkin and multiple state agencies have withheld hundreds of documents in response to FOIA requests, citing exemptions to Virginia’s laws.

GOVERNMENT + POLITICS | MEDIA

Citing FOIA exemptions, the Youngkin administration is withholding hundreds of pages of documents

Under both parties, legislative efforts to reform FOIA have largely failed, and some don’t see that changing anytime soon

BY: KATE MASTERS - MARCH 23, 2022 12:03 AM

Since Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s inauguration in January, the Mercury has made more than half a dozen Freedom of Information Act requests related to some of his biggest policy decisions, from revised guidance on masking in schools to a report on “divisive concepts” in K-12 education.

The governor’s office and multiple state agencies have withheld hundreds of pages of documents in response, citing exemptions to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. In February, for example, the Virginia Department of Health refused to disclose 54 emails and attachments — a total of 855 pages, according to FOIA analyst Cristina Keener — that are responsive to the Mercury’s request for communications between the department and the Office of the Governor regarding new school guidelines. ... Those recommendations, coupled with Youngkin’s second executive order, made Virginia one of the earliest states to end required masking in schools at a time when cases were still surging.

Other state agencies have taken similar actions. In late February, Jillian Balow, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, ended virtually every equity initiative within the Virginia Department of Education, describing many of those efforts as promoting “divisive concepts.” The Mercury requested any exchanges related to the report between the governor’s office, Balow or Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, but the department refused to release any of the 14 emails identified as responsive.

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The {working papers} exemption does apply to a broad range of officials, including the governor, his office, all 140 members of the Virginia General Assembly and appointed officials confirmed by state legislators. But it doesn’t include most rank-and-file staff within executive branch agencies. Despite that, the Virginia Department of Education withheld 14 emails in response to a Mercury request for communications between agency staff — including Superintendent Balow and the state’s Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz — and Max Eden, an education research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ... Eden has opposed a diverse range of initiatives in K-12 schools, from what he’s described as critical race theory in schools to universal free lunch.

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KATE MASTERS
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An award-winning reporter, Kate grew up in Northern Virginia before moving to the Midwest, earning her degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She spent a year covering gun violence and public health for The Trace in Boston before joining The Frederick News-Post in Frederick County, Md. While at the News-Post, she won first place in feature writing and breaking news from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, and Best in Show for her coverage of the local opioid epidemic. Before joining the Mercury in 2020, she covered state and county politics for the Bethesda Beat in Montgomery County, Md.