Democracy and Education

Confronting Extremism in Florida

Florida is the birthplace of Moms for Liberty. It is also the state where the governor has spent millions of dollars to elect extremist members of school boards around the state who have banned books, fired superintendents, and in general wreaked havoc on local school systems. In the face of that, communities around the state have come together to elect pro-public education school board members. In this episode, Karin Chenoweth talks with three who won in 2024. ·      Stephanie Vanos, who defeated a Moms for Liberty candidate in Orange County; ·      Liz Barker, who also defeated a Moms for Liberty candidate in Sarasota County; and ·      Rebecca Thompson, who defeated an incumbent who had been appointed by Governor DiSantis in Broward County. They talk about how they won—what strategies they employed and what they hope to accomplish. A few notes: Liz Barker’s internet connection was a bit wonky, so her sound isn’t great but the wisdom she shared is worth putting up with a little glitchiness. Also, at one point Karin talked over her so you might not hear the amount she raised for her race. It was $200,000. Guests made a couple of references to “Sunshine.” Florida’s Sunshine law [https://www.myfloridalegal.com/open-government/the-quotsunshinequot-law] is its open meetings law. Among other things, school board members are forbidden to privately discuss matters that come up before the board. The idea is to ensure that the public is able to hear all substantive discussions. A couple of other references made during the show included ·      Ruth’s List [https://ruthslistfl.org/], which is a political action committee that supports women candidates in Florida ·      Educated We Stand, [https://www.educatedwestand.com/] which is a PAC that supports pro-public education school board candidates based in Florida and started by a former school board member in Brevard County, Jennifer Jenkins. ·      Help Out Public Education (HOPE), a state-wide organization to support pro-public education school board candidates in Florida. Their web site is under construction but will be up soon. Please like, subscribe, and recommend this podcast to your friends and colleagues. And consider joining Democracy and Education [https://www.democracy-education.org/], which provides information and community to school board candidates, particularly those facing extremism. The only requirement for membership is that you support public education and democracy, and we have a vibrant community of school board members, former members, candidates, and folks who work on school board campaigns. To join, just fill out the form on the Connect page of the web site. [https://www.democracy-education.org/]

Episode 11: Extremism on the Ground

In this episode of Democracy and Education, Bobby Omari [https://www.facebook.com/bobby4cvusd/], who lost his bid for a school board seat in California’s Chino Valley United School District, shares the lessons he learned and the lessons he thinks others can learned from his campaign. Among other things, he thinks he underestimated the political sway a Christian Nationalist mega-church has in local politics, including in “harvesting” thousands of votes of its parishioners—that is, gathering mail-in votes and delivering them to the election board. Although Omari and his volunteers knocked thousands of doors, he also thinks he didn’t reach out enough to Independents and Republicans. Since the election he has worked with others to expand an existing group into the Concerned Parents and Citizens of CVUSD [https://cpccvusd.weebly.com/] which has been reporting on what the school board has been doing. He’s not sure he’ll run again but he will be very involved and help other candidates and they will take the lessons from 2024 into the 2026 elections.

Episode 10: Extremism: The Big Picture

When education researcher and parent Jamie Martin first heard NBC’s podcast about the Southlake Families, the group that had taken the majority of the school board in the Carroll School District in Texas proclaiming their allegiance to “parental rights,” she noticed that their web site looked remarkably like that of Francis Howell Families in her Missouri district. It had the same branding and the same language attacking critical race theory, transgender children, and teachers. That started her down the path of researching the influence of national organizations on local school board races. And what she found was that there is a network of well-established groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute that are working with newer groups like Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education to sow distrust in local public schools and undermine support for public education. In this podcast episode, Jamie talks with host Karin Chenoweth about her research as well as her work with a counter group, Francis Howell Forward, that is working to regain the majority of the school board through its practice of what she calls “bold civility.” Some of the things mentioned during the episode include: ·      Jamie Martin’s group, Francis Howell Forward [https://www.francishowellforward.org/]. ·      The Francis Howell Families web site [https://francishowellfamilies.org/]. (The Southlake Families website seems to be inactive, but see here for a side-by-side comparison [https://www.francishowellforward.org/post/two-home-pages-francis-howell-connection].) ·      NBC’s podcast about the Carroll School District in Southlake Texas [https://www.nbcnews.com/southlake-podcast]. ·      Christopher Rufo’s speech to Hillsdale College [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Hh0GqoJcE] where he said that the path to universal school choice is through universal school distrust. ·      An interview with Christopher Rufo [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/opinion/chris-rufo-trump-anti-dei-education.html] where he talks about using critical race theory for political purposes. ·      An article by Benjamin Foster-Welles in The New Yorker about how Christopher Rufo “invented” the conflict over critical race theory [https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory]. ·      The Texas Observer’s map of organizations backing and funding [https://www.texasobserver.org/school-board-pacs-consultants-right-wing/] the effort to take over school boards. ·      Demographics of Francis Howell district, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics [https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/2928950], is 86 percent White, 4 percent Black, 3 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. ·      James Davidson Hunter’s book, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America [https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Wars-Struggle-Define-America/dp/0465015336]

Episode 9: Rejecting Extremism

Democracy and Education Episode 9 Rejecting Extremism   Alarmed by the allegations made by Libs for TikTok and Moms for Liberty, Courtney Gore ran for school board in her home town of Granbury Texas in 2021. Once on the board, she searched for the evidence of indoctrination and the sexualization of children she had been warned of. When she found none, she went back to her community to tell them the good news. But they didn’t want to hear it and cut ties with her. Now she realizes that she had unwittingly been part of a campaign to sow distrust in public schools in order to undermine them and pave the way for vouchers. In this conversation with Karin Chenoweth, Courtney Gore lays out how she did something that is very difficult—she changed her mind. In the process she lost friends and lost one community. But she held true to her essential principle of being accountable to voters and her responsibility to provide an “amazing” education to all the children of Granbury. And she gained a new community of people who appreciated her openness to facts and evidence. Thanks to Jason Schwartz of ProPublica for first publishing the story of how Courtney Gore changed her mind. [https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-school-board-courtney-gore-facebook] She Campaigned for a Texas School Board Seat as a GOP Hard-Liner. Now She’s Rejecting Her Party’s Extremism. [https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-granbury-isd-school-board-courtney-gore]

Episode 8: Running a Winning Campaign in Ohio

When Sara Bitter ran for school board in a suburban district in Cincinnati, it was after she had already run twice for the state legislature. She knew how to run a contested campaign. But she thought running for the non-partisan school board seat would be different—less contentious, less political. After all, she says, most people just want school board members who will be a good steward of tax dollars and ensure that the children of the community are educated. Then outside money flooded into her district, funding her opponents who used the same kinds of political and ideological attacks that groups around the country have used elsewhere against pro-public education school board candidates. The attacks were libelous and hurtful, because her neighbors and her neighbors’ children saw them. So she went back to her old campaign playbook. This wasn’t a matter of just putting up some lawn signs and answering questions at forums. She needed to decide her win number, figure out how many doors to knock, put together campaign literature, and recruit volunteers to help her canvas and fundraise. To figure out which doors to knock, she went to the local Board of Elections and looked up which voters had consistently voted in school board elections—a much smaller number than voters who vote in other elections. And then she concentrated on reaching them through doorknocking. Once you have gone to someone’s door, written them a letter, talked to them and their families, Bitter says, they are less likely to believe whatever libelous accusations might be made. She shares this and other wisdom about campaigning for school board in Episode 8 of Democracy and Education. If you are interested in joining a community of school board members, former members, school board candidates, and folks working on school board campaigns, consider joining Democracy and Education. No dues. No fundraising. All you need to join is a commitment to strengthening public education and democracy. We have monthly national zoom calls and a members-only forum where you can ask questions, make observations, and share your expertise. Just fill out the form on the Connect page and watch for an email from Karin Chenoweth. (Check your spam filter if you don’t hear within a day or so.)