Trump’s victory strengthens the ‘parent rights’ movement in US public schools

President Trump’s victory in the 2024 election is a victory for the “parent rights movement” in America’s public schools, as a slew of conservative education policies and their advocates saw success on the November 5 ballot.

Conservative political organization Moms for Liberty is celebrating 44 victories to date over school boards in the target states of Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin, as part of its efforts to promote “parental rights” and undermine progressive politics in local schools. signs across the country.

Moms for Liberty has spent more than $3 million to target voters in these battleground states, generating “record high” early voting turnout for women, mothers and those with little to no voting record. The organization has endorsed and elected a total of 84 candidates to local school boards as superintendents in 13 states, and many votes continue to be tabulated.

“President Trump has been given a mandate by the American people,” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice told the Sun. “I think parents know that Washington has just gotten too big. Parents trust that President Trump will put them back in the driver’s seat when it comes to raising their children.”

Another parental rights group that aims to “liberate public education from indoctrination,” Project PAC of 1776, claims that more than 60 percent of the candidates it backs won this election, with a total of 250 school board victories since 2021. The organization’s success has been especially notable in the deep blue state of Maryland, where their conservative candidates have faced outsized spending campaigns from Democratic opponents and teachers unions.

“These victories show that Americans are tired of left-wing education policies that indoctrinate our children into a woke ideology but never teach our children to read,” Aiden Buzzetti, the head of coalitions and candidate recruitment for 1776 Project PAC, told the Sun . “We are ecstatic about these victories in Maryland, and we are excited to get America’s children reading again. But this is just the beginning of our fight. Bad teachers, beware.”

More than 21,000 In 2024, elections were held in America’s more than 13,000 public school districts for seats on school boards. Given the size of the candidate pool and the minimal or no national attention the races receive, it is difficult to track the results and determine whether the candidates supported by progressive groups and teachers unions won more or fewer seats than the candidates which are supported by conservative groups advocating what Ms Justice describes as “education freedom.”

What is clear is that the center of gravity of education policy is beginning to shift to the center, after decades of being firmly anchored to the left of the political spectrum. “In 2021, it felt like the progressive orthodoxy was running amok,” Frederick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told the Sun. “Four years later, I think it feels like the policy frameworks have changed dramatically.”

Trump, after campaigning on an education platform that supported limiting the ability of schools to promote certain views on gender, sexuality and race without parental consent, won this election together with the parents. Among voters surveyed who live with children under 18, 53 percent said they voted for Trump, compared to 44 percent who preferred Vice President Harris. CNN exit polls. This 9 percent Republican lead was a reversal from 2020, when the same group of voters gave President Biden a 6 percent margin.

The partisan divide in education policy is mapped by differences in educational attainment. Education reform and advocacy have long been driven by graduates, for graduates. Trump, who has won the vote of most non-college-educated voters, appears to be undermining this power hierarchy, with his allies in education activism appearing to appeal to a wide range of the American electorate.

Some Democrats are even abandoning their previous policy positions regarding America’s youth. In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory, two House Democrats, Congressmen Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton, voiced their opposition to biological boys participating in girls’ sports. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them to be run over on a playing field by a male or former male athlete, but as a Democrat I should be afraid to say that,” Mr. Moulton told the New York Times. York Times.

That comment has led to reactions. The Boston Sphere reported Tuesday that the chairman of Tufts’ political science department, David Art, subsequently pushed to limit internship opportunities at Mr. Moulton’s office, although Tufts has done so refuted that report.

It is worth noting for Mr. Moulton’s critics that his concerns are mainstream: 69 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup say that transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their birth gender.

Progressive politics, of course, still have a strong hold on many state and local school boards. In Chicago, for example, four teacher union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates and three independent candidates are prevailing in their campaigns to become members of the 21-member Board of Education. While final ballots are still being counted, Chicago Teachers Union-backed candidate Jennifer Custer is holding in one district a narrow lead about her opponent, Michelle Pierre, who is a champion of school choice and budget transparency.

Meanwhile, in Florida, an attempt to require school board candidates to publicly declare their political party on November 5 failed. By providing a mechanism for identifying candidates whose names few voters recognize, Amendment 1, its proponents say, would have helped inform everyday voting. voters, and not just unions and their allies, about the candidates on the ballot. It would also have made it easier for education advocates to mobilize around school board elections.

School board races are plagued by low turnout, with only 5 to 10 percent of voters marking their ballots for school board candidates, who often appear at the bottom or back of their ballots, according to the National School Boards Association. The matter is made worse by the fact that many of the off-cycle races take place in the spring, when teachers unions dominate turnout.

“The people who really know what school board candidates stand for are the people who work for the school district,” Mr. Hess says, “because they have a slate of candidates endorsed by the employees or the teachers association.”

Amendment 1 to the Florida Constitution was adopted 54.92 percent of voters, who do not reach the 60 percent needed for the proposal to pass. But given this strong public showing, Governor DeSantis could potentially send a bill authorizing party primaries to the Florida State Legislature.

Ms. Justice expresses optimism that a Trump administration will oversee federal tax breaks for parents with homeschooled children and overall economic improvements, especially lower inflation.

“Getting America back on track will be good for American families, which will mean better student outcomes,” said Ms. Justice. “Parental involvement is the most important driver of student success. There is nothing a public education system can do that replaces an involved, involved parent in raising their children.”