The missing piece in the conservative parental rights movement

In 2020, most parents — me included — were shocked when we heard what our children were being subjected to in the classroom. My own daughter was asked what pronouns she wanted to go by her first week of eighth grade. She was also introduced to critical race theory when a teacher asked the black, Asian, Hispanic, and LGBTQ students “How are you oppressed?”

Of course, if you were a white child, you couldn’t participate in the oppression Olympics unless you could add the intersection of LGBTQ to your identity. Otherwise, you were an oppressor. This was happening to children across America in some form or another.

How can we really have a marketplace of ideas if we are not in the market?

As the former spokesperson for Moms for Liberty, I’ve attended numerous school board meetings. I’ve participated in forums, helped push Florida school choice policy, worked with Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and different parental organizations, and did anything and everything I could do to stop the ideological attack on our kids.

What I’ve witnessed in the movement has given me insight that I hope sheds light on what we’re missing.

School board meetings and new laws to fight against the destructive curricula and practices have opened the eyes of many parents, and they’ve had their mass exodus from the public school system.

But what do we do before, during, and after the school board meeting and policy changes?

School boards are not enough

Governors such as DeSantis have made great strides in standing up for parents and children by enacting laws. Unfortunately, we’ve seen districts explicitly violate the laws that have been passed, and we’ve even seen school boards outright ignore or make excuses for inappropriate material in the classroom.

Organizations are doing good work by flipping school board seats and bringing awareness to these inappropriate materials in schools. But simply flipping school board seats is not the solution. School board member seats are up at different times, we lose elections, and you need a majority of like-minded members to make changes. And I’ve noticed that just because school board members are like-minded doesn’t mean they have the courage to vote their values.

How do we help our children now?

These efforts are honorable, but the long march through the institutions the Marxists desired was effective because their goal was to change culture, not merely policies.

To have an effective culture change, you must engage and change the mindset of the people — and by that I really mean the children.

The kids who have been effectively indoctrinated grow up and become the adults who implement the radical new vision in schools, churches, corporations, and the family. Because of this, no policy changes are necessary. They simply exercise their beliefs.

Think about it. Do you remember a time when the left went into a school board meeting and demanded the curriculum change? Or asked for inappropriate library books to be available to children? Of course not. Leftists changed the minds of the people (the children), and they are now carrying out their will.

As conservatives, we are missing the vital piece of connecting to the main people who are impacted the most: the kids themselves.

Parents are the key

All of our resources, efforts, and attention are being spent externally instead of internally. We’re raising the public’s awareness and changing school boards and policy (all external), but we’re not going directly to the children (internal).

The left has gone into the schools, and the leftistss speak directly to the children to influence them to their ideas. How can we really have a marketplace of ideas if we are not in the market?

Democrat operatives are organizing protests in K-12 schools for organizations like BLM and others. Michelle Obama is the co-chair of an organization that runs “My School Votes” that boasts, “We want to help you make your school a civic engagement and voter registration hub for your entire community.”

So while we are driving policy, the children are still being indoctrinated to their ideas with no counter-narratives.

How do we reach children with better ideas than what the left has to offer? This can only be done by parents. When you’re driving your kids to school, spending time with them throughout the week, there is no outside chatter that can interrupt your bonding experience with your own child.

Parents are the best answer to combat the attack facing our children and the next generation, not just by sending them to school board meetings but by helping them connect with their own children, teaching the children the absurdity of the public schools and how to think critically.

We train them in the way they should go by fostering meaningful connections and showing them that we are their biggest ally, not the teachers or the schools.

Our voices as parents need to be the strongest voices in our child’s lives. If we miss this vital piece in the conservative movement, I’m concerned the next generation of children will be farther to the left than those pulling the strings in America today.