Moms for Liberty, the extremist group that uses parental rights as a cover for harassing those with whom they disagree, is backing five conservative Christian candidates for the Bentonville school board race. The cohort of candidates also has an endorsement from Jason Maxwell, a republican candidate for House District 12.
Reminder: our school board races are nonpartisan.
A few of these school board candidates have been vocal about teachers failing our students. Almost all have made public statements about teachers and schools indoctrinating kids. But don’t be duped; these Moms for Liberty talking points are an attempt to make public education grounds for their culture war—not teaching kids. These groups and candidates want to divide us, hijack teachers’ expertise, and create a sort of pseudo-theocracy for our public education system.
Reminder: our public education system is secular.
It’s not the first time extremist groups have been involved in Bentonville school board races. Last year we told you about a candidate linked to a January 6th insurrectionist. Moms for Liberty is giving off similar extremism vibes in this year’s school board race. A little background on the group: NBC news reports that Moms for Liberty, “has been driven by the appeal of its core issues among conservatives, including battling mask mandates in schools, banning library books that address sexuality and gender identity” and more. The group’s members are “trained on how to get media attention, vet candidates, dissect school policies and prepare to run for office. Speakers frequently criticize social emotional learning, a teaching approach designed to help children manage their feelings.” Members of Moms for Liberty think social emotional learning is communist indoctrination. They also believe standard school health programs are another form of indoctrination.
The group’s main agenda is even worse than their nonexistent culture war: they don’t trust our teachers or our schools, despite having no reason not to. These school board takeover attempts are really about revving up moms [and all parents and caretakers] to get extremist conservatives elected to office at the local level.
It’s sad to watch this ignorance-based extremism in our school communities unfold. One MFL’s members says of their adversaries, “It’s not just that they don’t care about our children — I believe they’re actively trying to harm our children.”
The truth is, these five self professed “conservative Christian candidates” for the Bentonville school board were hand picked to run on the Moms for Liberty agenda. A vote for them would not be for liberty, parental rights, or anti-indoctrination. Rather, a vote for them would be for right-wing extremist political indoctrination of our school systems. Is that what good, decent parents want for our schools and our kids? We don’t think so; extremism has no place in our public school system.
