Conservative Organizations Seeking To Influence School Board Elections

People who are active on social media in my school district are likely aware of concerns about conservative groups trying to influence school board elections.  

I myself am concerned. I feel that some of the ideas about education that are distributed by these groups are fueling activism that’s based on unsubstantiated claims and simplification of nuanced topics. I know that progressives aren’t immune to this, but honestly, I’ve noticed it more in my community from the conservative side, especially from a few school board candidates whose language & activities are reminiscent of what I’m seeing from these groups.

Here are some groups I’ve found with an expressed interest in influencing school board elections.

Awake IL

• Awake IL was launched in May of 2021 and seems particularily active in my area.  According to its website, its mission is: "To empower local communities to create their own grassroots Awake Illinois chapter. At the local level, by engaging with each other, transformational change is happening in our communities. Topics that some chapters are covering include Critical Race Theory, Health Rights, Legislation, and more!" (https://www.awakeil.com/)
• Awake IL has a link on their Resources page for “IL School Board Candidate Resources” that includes school board trainings and a place to submit candidate endorsements.
• This group also also has a presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Some of the most recent rhetoric on its Facebook page currently includes:
• "DEI is DYING.  'Bout flippin' time."  
• "We will not be silent...or silenced."  
• "Save Women's Sports!" (in reference to transgender students) 
• "Go Woke, Go Broke"  
• "Say 'NO' to the gender cult entering your children's classroom.  Child mutiliation advocates have no business on a school board."

Courage is a Habit

• Courage is a Habit is another recently formed conservative organization that seeks to influence education.  Its first "tool" was launched 1 year ago ("10 Questions Every Parent Should Ask Vol. 1").
• It states its mission as follows:  "Our Mission: We believe that parents instinctively know how to protect their children's innocence. Our mission is to create actionable tools for parents so they can confidently fight for their children without apology." (https://courageisahabit.org/)
• Courage is a Habit's website includes the subheading, “actionable tools & strategies for parents to defend their children from indoctrination in K-12.”
• To read a blog entry I wrote about problematic messaging in this group, click here.

Moms for Liberty

• This organization was formed in March of 2021.  It provides the following information about itself:  "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." (https://www.momsforliberty.org/about/)
• Moms for Liberty also states on its website:"We activate liberty-minded leaders to serve in elected positions."
• This group is known to have a strong conservative bias; there has also been some controversy over this group with critics accusing them of spreading misinformation and fear-mongering about critical race theory and other educational issues.  
• While I share concerns about the spread of misinformation and fear-mongering, at the same time I agree that parents should be involved in their children's education, and and have a say in the policies and practices of their kids' educational system.

1776 Project

• This group was formed in 2020 by the Trump administration's Advisory 1776 Comission, created by executive order in November of 2020.  However, President Biden abolished the commission, also by executive order, on his first day in office (1/20/21).
• This group's tagline is "Promoting Patriotism and Pride in American History" and they describe themselves as follows:  "We are a political action committee dedicated to electing school board members nationwide who want to reform our public education system by promoting patriotism and pride in American history. We are committed to abolishing critical race theory and ‘The 1619 Project’ from the public school curriculum." (https://1776projectpac.com/about/)
• On its website, it makes an explicit statement about its desire to influence school board elections:  “It is up to us to fight their agenda in every school board election where this theory is tolerated, promoted, and forced upon America’s children.”
• This group is a conservative response to the New York Times' 1619 project.

Parents Defending Education

• This group was also formed in 2021.  The group's tagline is "Empower. Expose. Engage." It also shares the followinging information on its website: "Parents Defending Education is a national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas. Through network and coalition building, investigative reporting, litigation, and engagement on local, state and national policies, we are fighting indoctrination in the classroom -- and for the restoration of a healthy, non-political education for our kids." (https://defendinged.org/)
• Scrolling down on their website will reveal the headline “Welcome to IndoctriNation” with a USA map covered with colored red blobs; clicking through will reveal a more precise, clickable map.  It is a record of "problems" - of "parent orgs" and "incidents" that this group labels as "indoctrination".

Leadership Institute

• This organization has been operating since 1979. On their website the following mission can be found: “The Leadership Institute's mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process.” (https://leadershipinstitute.org/aboutus/mission.cfm)
• The group also states that it seeks to influence candidates for national school boards: “Conservatives focus on the nation’s school boards: The Leadership Institute announces the launch of a new program to train the next generation of conservative candidates for the nation’s school boards.”
• While this group is definitely conservative and has criticism because of this, of all the organizations on this list, it seems to be the least controversial and the most professional. It seems to me that this organization focuses more on equipping candidates to be effective leaders, while spending less time directly involving itself in hot-button issues. For these reasons I am inclined to see this group as a beneficial group for our communities; whereas with the other ones, I am having a harder time seeing the beneficial nature of their communications.

Center for Renewing America / Citizens Renewing America

• Citizens Renewing America is the advocacy arm of the Center for Renewing America.
• The Center for Renewing America is a conservative think tank (an organization that researches and analyzes policy issues, often with the goal of advancing their causes).  It was founded by Russ Vought, who served under President Trump.  While I didn't originally think to include it on my list because it doesn't explicitly state that it directly seeks to influence school board elections, it is relevant because it dissemminates content about educational issues and even provides its own "key definitions and concepts" about the "woke federal bureaucracy [that] is a threat to the American way of life" such as CRT, SEL, equity and DEI.  Given that this organization seems to have been founded by those close to a former president, the top-down nature of its influence seems important and relevant.

I share this list of organizations so that those who are not sure what people mean when they say that conservatives are organizing to influence school borad elections, would understand some of the evidence that supports this claim.  It is especially interesting that these organizations largely seem to have been founded recently (with the exception of The Leadership Institute).

I also share this information along with information about each organization so that people can come to their own conclusions about the beneficial or harmful nature of each.

I encourage everyone to learn about their local school board candidates, who really have an impact on our schools, and vote on April 4th!

In the meantime, if you’re interested in an in-depth example of what I see as problematic messaging from one of these groups, feel free to check out my previous blog which can be found here.

Blog post by Molly Sturm.  Thanks for reading!