Moms for Liberty and the case for public schools

Laura Pappano has reported on education for 30 years and has seen it

Off the rails and accelerating

In many ways Moms for Liberty may have peaked but that doesn’t mean their movement is finished or slowing down. Much like Trump and MAGA, the movement at the root of what drove the Moms for Liberty machine is moving beyond them and spreading like a disease across the country.

Look only to the state houses where places like Tennessee and Missouri are fielding bills to make it a crime for librarians or teachers to let students read certain books that are deemed pornographic or “grooming.” See the assaults on transgender youth and healthcare. The fake outcry about Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity programs.

It’s all happening from the school board and up. The question is can they be stopped?

School Moms

My guest on this week’s show, Laura Pappano, looked at that question and found that there is a counter movement of what she calls ‘school moms’ who are organizing to push back against these anti-freedom and anti-public education efforts. Her new book is called ‘School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education’ and dives into the numbers and leaders who are fighting back.

Laura is a long time journalist focused on education and actually attended both of the Moms for Liberty summits somewhat undercover to see what they were saying and it’s as outrageous as you would think from a group that excused a member using a Hitler quote on their newsletter.

The Show

Laura Pappano

Laura Pappano has attended both of their summits and just published her new book on the movement to save our schools ‘School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education.’ Laura is an award-winning journalist and author who has written about K-12 and higher education for over 30 years. A former education columnist for The Boston Globe, Pappano has written about education for multiple publications. She is the author or co-author of three books, The Connection Gap: Why Americans Feel So Alone, Playing with the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports, and Inside School Turnarounds. You can find her on X/Twitter at @LauraPappano and at her website https://www.laurapappano.com/.