The Educators Room looks at the rise of groups like Moms for Liberty and the attacks on public education under the guise of “liberty”.
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.
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.