Moms For Liberty: The rise of the anti-education movement

The gathering strength of the anti-public education movement only becomes more and more impossible to deny. As education groans beneath a lack of funding, the onslaught of charter schools, and the dismantling of the Department of Education, educators across the nation wearily ask themselves one question: “What’s next?”

As more and more of us have found ourselves under assault in many states and areas, there are still those of us who have not yet been personally affected by the radicalizing political climate. In teachers’ lounges and online chats, many have succumbed to the temptation to calm themselves down with platitudes such as “Well, that can’t happen here.” Whether you feel reassured because you live and work in a “blue” state, or you feel protected by a strong administration or an active and supportive parent community, it is perhaps a natural inclination to wish that the problems of Christo-fascist nationalism and their organized school takeovers are something that can be safely confined to “red states”. Unfortunately, this perspective ignores the anti-public school movement’s widespread nature and its powerful levels of organization. 

The National Movement: A Coordinated Attack on Democracy

Although radical conservatism couches its mission statements in language surrounding freedom of choice and local control, the reality is that the movement and its objectives are national. The intention has never been to keep decisions local and let states decide. The intention is a complete shifting of power from federal, state, and local governments to nationally organized political groups. This paradigm shift is the largest existential threat our democracy has yet faced. And public schools are one of the front lines in the war. 

The Moms For Liberty Playbook

Moms For Liberty, one of the most influential groups you’ve never heard of,  has experienced breathtaking growth in the last four years, riding the rapidly escalating assault on public education. Formed in 2021, the group has grown from two moms in Florida angry about school masking to 165 chapters in 33 states, 70,000 members, and 56 school board election victories. Under the banner of “defending parental rights at all levels of government”, Moms For Liberty is a group that socially and financially supports the actors behind library book bans, controversial curriculum standard revisions, and sex and gender-focused support on school campuses. 

Shifting to the Fight for Their Children’s Schools

With their individualized approach to fighting against COVID restrictions on a school-by-school basis, Moms For Liberty effectively shifted the fight from Washington and state capitals to the doors of their children’s schools. Suddenly, ordinary teachers and administrators found themselves directly in the crosshairs for implementing policies and procedures largely outside their control. As COVID waned, the outrage only ramped up. Amidst a firestorm of protests, book bans, and Facebook outrage, school personnel across America were now under a constant, concerted attack from the very community they had been serving for years. In a post-COVID world, the mandate for Moms For Liberty was clear. If an educator won’t align with their beliefs, that person has to go. Sniper style, they began taking out school boards, school districts, and individual educators one by one. 

Their guerrilla-style tactics were effective yet easy to dismiss. Large as they were, they remained a grassroots organization, taking over America one school board at a time. America is large. It made sense that many of us could feel concerned for our colleagues yet insulated from their tactics. However, last month’s court ruling on the 2024 Title IX update abruptly broadened their reach, bringing them literally into any school district in America. 

The Weaponization of Title IX

Title IX, which was passed in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding. A landmark victory for American women, Title IX brought school-aged girls out of Home Economics and into STEM. It provided equal opportunity for girls and women’s sports at the high school and college level. In the fifty years since Title IX, women have begun achieving, and even outachieving, men in traditionally male-dominated fields.

In 2024, Title IX regulations were updated to provide increased protection. The updates made it safer and fairer to report and investigate sexual assault claims by lowering the burden on victims. It slightly amended the definition of sexual harassment, allowing harassment to be “subjectively or objectively” offensive rather than only objectively offensive. And it expanded the scope of its protections to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation.” 26 Republican-led states sued to stop the implementation of the updated regulations. The lawsuits all allege that the term “gender identity” is too vague a term to be included in regulation, and that students are having their beliefs violated by allowing transgender and nonbinary students to use locker rooms and bathrooms that conform to their gender identity.

Legal Loopholes and Chilling Consequences

Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming filed a lawsuit as joint plaintiffs in the Kansas Supreme Court. Moms For Liberty and some other conservative education advocacy groups also filed as plaintiffs. When the Kansas Supreme Court issued the injunction preventing the Department of Education from enforcing the Title IX regulations, it applied not only to the states involved in the lawsuit but also to every school attended by a registered Moms For Liberty member in any state. 

In a belated bid for clarity, the judge demanded in his ruling that Moms For Liberty submit a list of schools that would be affected by the injunction. Across America, schools held their breath waiting to learn if a child of a Mom For Liberty attended their school. If a school appeared on the “Moms For Liberty” list, it was now held to a different standard and liable to prosecution for following federal regulations, regardless of district or state-level policies. Simply by filling out a Google Form, one single, registered Mom For Liberty member could remove gender-identity-based bullying protection for an entire school.

See if your school is affected by a Moms For Liberty member here. 

Liberty as a Trojan Horse for Authoritarianism

In effect, this ruling nullifies the updated Title IX regulations, as this sort of scatter-shot enforcement is impossible. This victory perfectly encapsulates the political goals of these neoconservative groups: achieving as many wide-reaching authoritarian policies as possible while maintaining a tight-fisted, fear-based control over the local environment. Under the guise of “freedom” and “liberty”, oppressive Christo-fascism continues its measured, coordinated march into one of America’s foundational institutions. 

In the face of the storms of the last five years, many of us have left education altogether. This is what they want. Others of us are trying to weather the storm, hoping saner heads will soon prevail. This is also what they want. It is up to us to get educated and mobilized so that groups like Moms For Liberty get out of our school boards, curriculum review processes, and our libraries. Please spread the word about this group and others like it, vote in your local school board elections, and join local area groups in person and online that are dedicated to fighting their ideologies. 

Reclaiming the True Meaning of Liberty

As the far-right movement continues to gain power in America, its co-optation and corruption of our nation’s language cannot continue to be tolerated. We must not allow “liberty” to become a code word for Christian conservative nationalism. It should not be a dirty word that virtue signals antisocial, antidemocratic ideals. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the founding principles of our country and our system. Educators must remain, now more than ever, firmly committed to liberty – our liberty to speak, think, read, talk, and live as we like. 

They know we have the power to defeat them. That’s why they’re trying so damn hard.