Moms for Liberty's conservative activists are planning their next move: Taking over school boards

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

At the group's first national summit, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick
Scott cheered the activists' efforts, saying they will boost
conservatives’ chances in the midterms.

TAMPA, Fla. — Eighteen months after a pair of former school board members
in Florida founded Moms for Liberty, the group’s first national gathering
drew 500 people, including major Republican figures, to a waterfront hotel
here, demonstrating the growing political influence of these local
conservative activists.

The organization’s rapid ascension — its leaders say it has nearly 100,000
members across 195 chapters in 37 states — has been driven by the appeal
of its core issues among conservatives, including battling mask mandates
in schools, banning library books that address sexuality and gender
identity, and curtailing lessons on racial inequity and discrimination,
its founders say.

The conference in Tampa was a moment for members to meet like-minded
parents, reflect on their success in shaping the national debate around
school curricula and policies, and learn how to spread their message
further. They strategized on what they want to do next: elect their own
candidates to school boards, pass state legislation and diminish the
influence of teachers unions.

“It’s been said we’re some political powerhouse,” said Tiffany Justice,
who co-founded Moms for Liberty in January 2021 with Tina Descovich. “But
the truth of the matter is, you have a whole new segment of the American
population engaging in politics now, and they weren’t really political
before.”

Wearing American flag-inspired accessories, attendees received Moms for
Liberty-branded pocket constitutions and bought T-shirts with John Adams
quotes. They browsed booths set up by conservative groups, including
Turning Point USA, the Leadership Institute and Heritage Action, and the
evangelical Liberty University. They logged in to Wi-Fi hotspots named “We
Beat School Boards” and “Don’t Teach Gender ID.”

At strategy sessions, which were off-limits to journalists, they were
trained on how to get media attention, vet candidates, dissect school
policies and prepare to run for office. Speakers frequently criticized
social emotional learning, a teaching approach designed to help children
manage their feelings, as a way for schools to interject communist ideas.
When one activist declared that many school mental health programs were
“another form of indoctrination,” the crowd cheered.

During one panel, two sponsors of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education
bill, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, described how
activists can effectively lobby their state lawmakers for similar
legislation: Bring hard evidence of the problem, target legislators with
young children and propose a bill rather than just complain. Panelists
also said they expect to propose amendments to Florida’s version of the
law annually to address additional issues, such as the content of
textbooks.

“Our laws need to evolve to respond to these new techniques and things
that they’re using,” said Jeff Childers, an attorney and conservative
commentator who serves on Moms for Liberty’s board, and was also on the
panel about Florida’s new law. “So I look at the parents’ bill of rights
and the amendments that we’ve had since — it’s a really good framework,
right? That’s like taking the body of an AK-47, and then we can start
mounting new accessories onto it: a flashlight, a laser pointer and things
like that.”

Childers advised those in more liberal states to try to pass a parental
rights measure through their school board or county commission. He said
that local action would eventually wear down resistance from lawmakers at
the state level.

“Our adversaries, it’s not just that they don’t care about our children —
I believe they’re actively trying to harm our children,” Childers told the
audience, to applause.

Attendees also heard speeches from prominent Florida Republicans,
including Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely considered a presidential candidate in
waiting, as well as Sen. Rick Scott, the National Republican Senatorial
Committee chair, who said Moms for Liberty-backed candidates are going to
help the GOP win governor races and control of the Senate in the midterm
elections.

“If you guys run, you are going to make everybody else win,” Scott said.

Critics accuse Moms for Liberty — which is registered as a social welfare
nonprofit organization and so does not have to disclose its donors — of
sowing division in communities, rolling back progress on issues of
diversity and inclusion, and scaring educators out of the profession.

Activists with the group have offered a $500 bounty for information on
teachers using critical race theory, the academic study of how racism is
perpetuated by laws and institutions, in their classes. They organized
protests against Covid mitigation protocols, referring to one school’s
mask policies as “segregation.” And they demanded schools pull books about
Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King Jr., saying the depictions of racism
were too disturbing for young children.

“They’ve turned our schools into political battlegrounds,” said Angela
Wynn, a Sarasota, Florida, parent who co-founded Support Our Schools, an
activist group aiming to counter organizations like Moms for Liberty.

The pushback hasn’t slowed down Moms for Liberty.

Its members have stood behind GOP governors during bill signings. Its
national summit booked former Trump administration Cabinet members Betsy
DeVos and Ben Carson, in addition to Scott and DeSantis, who gave the
keynote address after accepting a sword from Moms for Liberty. Last month,
the organization received an award from the Heritage Foundation, an
influential conservative think tank, which was also a sponsor of the
national summit.



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