ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WTVO) — Former Virginia governor and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, is drawing criticism after saying parents shouldn’t tell schools what they should teach during a debate in the state’s governor’s race on Tuesday.

McAuliffe, a Democrat who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, is running for governor again.

He made the remarks after Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate, argued that parents should be involved in the decisions school districts take in educating their children, according to Fox News.

“What we’ve seen over the course of this last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. In fact in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents so upset because there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen, it was shocking,” Youngkin said. “And in fact, you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they were there. You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.”

McAuliffe responded by saying he was “not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.”

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said.

Tuesday’s debate between the two candidates was the last before the state’s November 2nd election.