No, Moms for Liberty Won’t Bring Liberty to Education

Trying to change government (public) education from within is doomed to fail

If you’re in or near Loveland, CO, on Th 8/17, stop by for my talk “Thinking Right or Wrong about Entitlements” at Message of Life Ministries, 605 18th St. SW. Doors open at 5:30 and my presentation begins promptly at 6pm. I’d love to see you there!

A few weeks ago, I argued that America needs conservatives that champion capitalism, not neo-progressive conservatives (NeoProgCons) taking the country in an authoritarian/theocratic/nationalist direction. Last week, Robert Tracinski illustrated the NeoProgCon impact (my term, not Rob’s) in government (public) education in an insightful piece for Discourse, Crossing the Rubicon on the Politicization of Education. He argues that nationalist conservatives are trying to 

...seize control of public education in an attempt to prevent the propagation of ideas that they regard as hostile to their values, which they lump together under the vague catch-all of “wokeness.”

Illustrating his claim with developments in Florida, where conservatives have taken to purging school libraries of undesirable books, pressuring textbook makers to alter content, and taking over the public liberal arts New College, he points out that  

This is the foolishness of the nationalist conservative agenda. In seeking to use the state for their ends, nationalist conservatives will end up increasing the power of institutions they are unlikely to control for very long. (emphasis mine) 

One of the organizations that appears, perhaps unintentionally, in lockstep with this conservative movement is Moms for Liberty, which supports parent candidates (not moms only) for school board positions around the country. Born out of the pandemic K-12 educational discontent, Moms for Liberty has been quite successful in the last couple of years, winning seats for over half (some 300) of its school board candidates around the country. This has gained the attention of, among others, Republican presidential hopefuls who recently lined up to speak to Moms for Liberty at its 2023 Joyful Warriors National Summit in Philadelphia. 

The organization’s mission states that

Moms for Liberty is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.

Its vision is

Americans empowered and thriving in a culture of Liberty.

On its website, readers are encouraged to sign the Parent Pledge: 

I don’t doubt Moms for Liberty’s sincerity and I share many of their concerns about what children are taught and not taught in government (public) schools. But its NeoProgCon aligned agenda to use the state for its own ends to impose its values on government (public) K-12 education is doomed to fail long term.  

For all its talk of liberty and fundamental rights of parents, to the extent that Moms for Liberty gain power on school boards and in state departments of education (their next target), they will unavoidably infringe on the liberties and violate the rights of parents that disagree with their agenda. Banning a book offensive to you from the school library may mean banning a favorite of others. Altering a textbook to suit your values may conflict with the values of others. Changing the curriculum to align with your creed, may violate the creed of others.   

Trying to change the system from within by taking over school boards and influencing state departments of education will only perpetuate today’s individual rights violations in the K-12 educational public square, because it lacks the good fences that make good neighbors. As I have previously explained:   

Nowhere is the tragedy of the public square more pronounced than in government (public) K-12 education. The pandemic unleashed a civil war between advocates for closing schools and keeping them open, and if keeping open, between mask proponents and opponents, and vaccine advocates and detractors. And as parents got a Zoom lesson in what their kids were being taught (CRT, gender identity, environmentalism) or not taught (reading, writing and arithmetic), new battle lines were drawn between people on either side of the issues. Parents showed up to school board meetings in droves, many pulled their kids out of school, and elected officials were voted in and out of office based on their stance. Most of the actions were initiated by people with the right to a stake in the “common good” game as federal and state income taxpayers, and local property taxpayers (whether directly, as homeowners, or indirectly, as renters)—parents, teachers, administrators, community activists, and others.

Moms for Liberty has channeled many of the frustrations listed above. But they have chosen a course of action that eventually will come back to bite them. By taking their fight to the public square of K-12 education, by trying to use this public square for their own purposes, they are inadvertently fortifying it: they are increasing the power of institutions they are unlikely to influence for very long. 

No, the only way Moms for Liberty will achieve lasting success is by creating a moral groundswell for abolishing government (public) education outright: 

If the current government (public) K-12 education system were replaced by an individual rights respecting private education marketplace, the tragical civil war in this particular public square would end. Occasional localized skirmishes would take place when a certain private education offering didn’t meet expectations. Parents would most likely try to affect change, and the education provider try to accommodate the demands to not lose customers. But at some point, if the parties couldn’t come to terms, the parents would look elsewhere for another school that better catered to their values and wallets. 

For the most part, the good fences of a rights-respecting private education system where buyers (parents) and sellers (private schools) trade value for value without forcing others to foot the bill in the form of taxes and other public financing would make good neighbors of everyone, and make the tragedy of the public square—demonstrations, political action, and potential violence—a distant memory; and all of us could move on to more productive pursuits.

This is the vision of true liberty and true parental individual rights in education that Moms for Liberty and every other parent, grandparent, and others concerned with the state of K-12 education should fight for. This is the moral crusade they should join. Don’t fall for the NeoProgCons message to fight fire with fire, adopting the tactics of the leftist educational establishment, playing on their playing field, entrenching the institutions that have created the K-12 educational morass in the first place, because it’s a losing proposition.