Since its founding in 2021, Moms for Liberty has had an exceptional growth path that has exceeded that of many similar organizations in the past. It began as a small grass-roots group campaigning against COVID-19 school mask and vaccine requirements and calls its members “joyful warriors” who are simply working to protect students and defend parents’ rights.
But the group has gone on to tackle school curriculum materials, including the ways in which racism, LGBTQ+ rights, religion, gender, and sexuality are taught in schools. It specifically targets books it says are inappropriate or “anti-American” and looks to ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from schools. The group has gone so far as accusing educators of trying to indoctrinate children with “secret Marxist beliefs.” As of July 2023, the organization had 285 chapters in 45 states.
The Southern Poverty Law Center described Moms for Liberty as a "far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities, opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculum, and has advocated books bans”. The American Historical Association accuses the group of crossing "a boundary in its attempts to silence and harass teachers", rendering it "impossible for historians to teach with professional integrity without risking job loss and other penalties."
“The greatest impact that Moms for Liberty is having is imparting fear in the teachers and the educators and the parents,” Laura Leigh-Abby, co-founder of Defense of Democracy, a nonprofit group advocating for inclusive education, has said. “The true impact they’re having is really not calculable, because I’m seeing teachers who are afraid to speak out because they don't want to be targeted.”
The writers’ organization Pen America reported a 28% rise in public school book bans in just six months before the 2022-23 academic year. As the 2024 election approaches, attacks on the place of race in history classes and teaching about LGBTQ+ issues seem certain to feature in Republican debates and town halls.
All of these positions have led to strong alliances with right-wing organizations. While Moms for Liberty is organized as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization and is not legally required to disclose its donors, the sponsors of its annual summit are known to include a variety of right-wing advocacy groups and companies, including The Leadership Institute, a Republican organization devoted to training conservative leaders, The Heritage Foundation, and Patriot Mobile, a far-right Christian company whose PAC has spent hundreds of thousands in an effort to take over Texas school boards. Moms for Liberty has also received financial support from Conservatives for Good Government, a Florida PAC.
Moms for Liberty has recognized the might of its parents’ rights movement, which, in addition to making inroads into school boards across the country, has helped politicians like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin win key statewide elections. Of the 500 right-wing candidates the group endorsed for school board last year, three-quarters of whom had never run before, 275 won their races. This summer many of the Republican candidates running for president appeared at the group’s national convention held in Philadelphia, including Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump. The group has clearly become a major player leading up to the 2024 elections.
Locally, Pennsylvania has the second-highest number of Moms for Liberty members and over 20 chapters across the commonwealth. Bucks County has the highest membership in Pennsylvania. Over the past year, the Central Bucks School District and, for a longer time, Pennridge School District have experienced the effects of extremists sitting on their school boards.
One member of the current Central Bucks School Board Republican majority, Debra Cannon, is currently a member of the Bucks County Moms for Liberty Facebook group, and another, Lisa Sciscio, was previously. And recently, the Chair of Bucks County's Moms for Liberty shared the group’s "Voter's Guide." Four of the five Republicans running for Bucks County School Board in this year’s election - - Aarati Martino, Stephen Mass, Tony Arjona, and Glenn Schloeffel (listed incorrectly under Centennial) - - are the Moms for Liberty recommended candidates.
In response, a group called Advocates for Inclusive Education was formed in 2022 to “stand against censorship of diverse voices in our libraries and in our classroom.” In setting up liberals in opposition to parents, the right has found a powerful way to whip up supporters. In response to the targeting of school boards by Moms for Liberty, Advocates for Inclusive Education tasks the Central Bucks School District Board with prioritizing “the unique needs of ALL students, working with the teachers they hire, and always pursing best practice, research-based, data-driven policies.” They state one overriding request of the Board: “To follow the professional authority of the educators they hire who have been trained for years in identifying the diverse needs of children.