× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

After declaring his support for taking down Virginia’s Confederate statues, Gov. Terry McAuliffe seemed to soften his position Thursday by saying fixing Richmond schools should take precedence over removing statues on Monument Avenue.

“If I’m the mayor of Richmond or I’m on the City Council, I’m facing a tough decision,” McAuliffe said Thursday morning during a radio appearance on Richmond’s WRVA. “Do I spend, I don’t know, five, 10 million dollars taking something down. When I got schools. I tell you, my first priority’s got to be schools.”

As the state’s top Democrat, McAuliffe had previously said the state’s Confederate monuments should be left alone. After the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, McAuliffe changed his stance, saying he now feels the statues have become too divisive and should be moved to museums or battlefields.

In an interview with WRVA’s Jimmy Barrett on Thursday, McAuliffe said Richmond has bigger concerns than statues.

“Richmond has to deal with the issue that a lot of folks, young millennials, are here. But when they have children they sort of move out to the neighboring jurisdictions for education,” McAuliffe said. “We’ve got to keep people right here in this beautiful city. And that’s their biggest challenge.”