School board member removed after controversial ESL comment

Victoria Manning was a member of the Virginia Beach School Board while she was removed from her post after a controversial social media post in which she criticises ESL training. 

ESL or English as Second Language program was introduced to educate children who didn't grow up speaking English. Following the school board's recent presentation in which they confirmed that the ESL program is growing, Manning took to social media to criticize the necessity of the entire endeavor. She wrote "( Virginia Beach) schools has 300 additional ESL students in the past year. Most are from South America." " Our ESL budget has increased over $1 million in two years. Continuing to educate South Americans is not sustainable."

Manning said that her comment was triggered by the fact that the school board was asked to hire 8 additional ESL teachers all while dealing with the existing teacher shortages. She mentioned on her campaign website how the teachers are always overburdened. 

Virginia Secretary of State Education Aimee Guidera said that the administration wholly condemns Miss Manning's comment and as a result, she will no longer be part of the working group. 

Source: Richmond-Times Dispatch