Hannah-Jones made the remarks during a special edition of Meet the Press with Chuck Todd that focused solely on race and public schools.
“I don’t really understand this idea that parents should decide what’s being taught. I’m not a professional educator,” Hannah-Jones said, “I don’t have a degree in social studies or science. We send our children to school because we want them to be taught by people who have expertise in the subject area.”
McAuliffe, who lost to Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin in the November election, famously said that he didn’t think “parents should be telling schools what they should teach” during a September debate with now-Gov.-elect Youngkin.
During her Sunday remarks, Hannah-Jones alluded to McAuliffe’s comments, saying the Democratic candidate’s comments are “just the facts” and are "why we send our children to school and don’t homeschool.”
WATCH: RFK JR. TALKS ABOUT ELON RELEASING TWITTER FILES REVEALING COLLUSION
The 1619 Project, which Hannah-Jones wrote for the New York Times in 2019, offers a view of American history that says America was established upon racism and that the year the first slave ships came from Africa should be considered as the actual founding of America.
WATCH: BILL MAHER GUEST: MAGA IS "ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM"
The project has been the topic of intense review over its display of American history, including allegations of discrepancies and fabrication. Several state governments have prohibited teaching the project in public schools as part of larger public school curriculum bans on critical race theory, which says American institutions are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities.
POLITICAL CORRUPTION TRIAL TAKES BIZARRE TURN: MENENDEZ ENLISTS EXPERT LINKED TO CHILD MURDER CASE
In her discussion with Todd, Hannah-Jones backed her writing from the legislative pushback it has received.
“My project, which is a work of journalism in the New York Times,” Hannah-Jones said, “is banned by name in Georgia, in Florida, in Texas, there are efforts to ban the teaching of this history in Oklahoma, in South Dakota, in Tennessee. When we think about what type of society bans books or bans ideas, that is not a free and tolerant democratic society, that is a society that is veering towards authoritarianism”
CALIFORNIA'S NEW 'GENEALOGY OFFICE' TO HAND OUT CHECKS BASED ON DNA RESULTS
“Unless people who believe in free speech, who believe in our children being intellectually challenged, begin to get organized and speak up, I think we’re going into a dark age of repression and suppression of the truth,” she said. “Really, these laws are paving the way for the taking of other political rights like voting rights, like women’s reproductive rights, like rights for LGBTQ people."
Discover alternative ideas that will make you think
Engage in mind bending debate
Earn points, rise in rank, have fun
