Brayden Myer
From October 8-11 Moms for Liberty leaders and members across the nation gathered at the Sheraton hotel in Dallas, Texas for their 5th National Summit. The summit featured a variety of speakers, some returning from previous years.
Highlighted at the summit were the organization’s achievements. These included 575 school board seats won by Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates, 120 parental rights bills across 22 states they supported or helped pass, involvement in First Amendment litigation and legal action over Title IX policy, having endorsed in over 150 school board races this year, and beginning for the first time to endorse in statewide races for state superintendents.
Tina Descovich, Co-Founder and CEO of Moms for Liberty, announced the organization has started using a new tool called M4L Aware. This tool uses super intelligence to monitor school board agendas across approximately 13,000 school districts. This tool will flag suspicious agenda items such as DEI initiatives, Critical Race Theory, gender-related policies, proposed taxes, and more.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke on his priorities for public education. Those priorities included the following: school choice should be protected and expanded. Teachers should be funded well, and educators should be rewarded based on student progress. DEI programs in public education need to be eliminated. The failures of communism should be emphasized in social studies teachings. Parents should be given greater access to curriculum, school-library materials, and information about what their children are taught. Students should not be able to go on their cellphones in school and screen time should be reduced along with the amount of testing.
Ryan Walters, former Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction and CEO of Teacher Freedom Alliance, gave his criticisms of teachers’ unions. Walters said teachers’ unions engage in the following: spending heavily on left-wing political activism, opposing conservative school board candidates and policies, promoting ideological curricula and social policies, and using membership dues and political influence to pressure elected officials. Walters then said through the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which he describes as an alternative to teachers’ unions, they have helped 300,000 teachers leave their unions, costing the teachers’ unions $870 million.
Brandi Cruz, reporter and host of the unDivided podcast, spoke on how her views transformed over time from disliking Trump to supporting him and subsequently supporting organizations like Moms for Liberty. In her remarks, she questioned the reliability and framing of mainstream media coverage. Cruz dove into the era of covid, criticizing school closures, restrictions, government emergency powers, and employment policies tied to vaccination. She also raised concern about the rioting during that time, expressing the need for accountability and public order.
Cory DeAngelis, Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argued that school-choice advocates have made substantial progress but must remain vigilant. He called out hypocrisy in teachers’ unions, pointing to the example that Stacey Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, called school choice racist but sends her kid to private school. He also argued for more parental control in education, which should include curriculum, school policies, and decisions affecting their children. He then encouraged supporters to continue to organize, pressure lawmakers, and pursue homeschooling and alternative educational options.
A panel featuring Iowa State Representative Samantha Fett and South Carolina State Representative Jackie Terribile discussed how grassroots advocacy prepared them for government service. Both representatives became involved with Moms for Liberty over concerns with public schools prior to running for state office. They have supported bills protecting constitutional liberties and parental rights when faced with pressure and opposition. Their positions have come with threats and the stress that their work has placed on their families but remain committed to staying active in politics.
Dr. James Lindsay, author and founder of New Discourses, spoke on what he calls “Critical America Theory,” a term he uses to describe a common ideological pattern among many debated topics. “It doesn’t matter if it’s race. It doesn’t matter if it’s sex and sexuality. It doesn’t matter if it’s body, status, whatever. They all go to the same place. They teach our kids to hate America so that they can have a revolution.”
During the Navigating the Great Reveal breakout session, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, President of Americans for Health Freedom, spoke on the importance of medical freedom. She argued that doctors should be able to make treatment decisions based on their own judgment and patients’ needs rather than institutional or government directives. When it comes to informed consent, she believes potential benefits, risks, and alternatives of a medical intervention should be explained clearly to patients rather than only giving them a form to sign. She supports changes to childhood vaccine schedules, including separating some vaccines and reducing the number administered at one visit. She criticized states and medical authorities that continued following the CDC schedule. She also expressed disappointment with public-health leadership and argued that parents and patients need better access to information and greater freedom to make medical decisions.
During the State Sovereignty breakout session, KrisAnne Hall, constitutional attorney and author, spoke about how Americans can better protect their liberties and parental authority by learning the Constitution, understanding the original relationship between the states and the federal government, and holding elected officials accountable. She urged attendees to look at if political candidates understand the constitution, and if they are running for state or local office, their state constitution, stating the main responsibility of elected officials are to protect people’s rights and respect constitutional limits on government power. She explained that unless a power is specifically granted to the federal government in the constitution, that power belongs to the states. Using that information, she questioned whether a lot of federal agencies and departments, among them being the Department of Education, are constitutional as they are exercising powers that should primarily belong to the states. Federal courts, she argued, shouldn’t be deciding matters that are internal to the states.
During the The Whole Child, Quantified — How Schools Make Children Machine-Readable breakout session, author Priscilla West argues that competency-based education (CBE), social-emotional learning (SEL), and digital student-tracking systems are combining to shift schools away from measuring primarily academic knowledge toward measuring students’ attitudes, personality traits, values, and behavior. She explains that competency-based education is presented as an approach in which students progress by demonstrating mastery of skills rather than by spending a fixed amount of time in a course. This, she says, creates a system focused on personal characteristics over a knowledge-centered education. Such characteristics can include attitudes and values, personality traits and motivations, social roles and self-image, collaboration, empathy, resilience, and self-awareness, and more. She pointed out organizations that are driving this shift toward CBE include the Aurora Institute, the Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, CASEL, and organizations involved in workforce development. With schools implementing digital tracking systems, she believes these could be used to store a digital file for each student, such as a Learning and Employment Record, a digital record intended to connect skills, competencies, and experiences across education and employment. This, she argues, could follow students into their adult lives when looking and applying for jobs.
During the Reforms for Honest Elections breakout session, a presentation was given by the Honest Elections Project. The organization advocated for the following reforms for elections: requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. Improving voter-roll maintenance to remove ineligible or duplicate registrations. Allowing states to use government databases to verify eligibility. Improving information-sharing between state agencies. Using separate state and federal voter lists where required by federal law. Restricting foreign funding of ballot measures, including indirect contributions, and improving transparency about who finances political campaigns. For voters who have moved, their prior registration addresses should be collected along with matching identifying information and allow them to request cancellation of their former registration when registering in a new state. The organization then advocated for routine audits for the following: ballot handling and chain of custody, voter registration and list maintenance, mail-ballot processing, voting equipment testing and security, and reconciliation of voters, ballots, and reported totals. The organization then argued all elections should be moved to November, as having multiple elections throughout the year can cause voter fatigue, reduce turnout, increase administrative costs, and make it harder for election officials to review their procedures.
The documentary America’s Moms, produced by Adam Coleman, premiered. This documentary is about Moms for Liberty. It featured footage of school board and state legislature testimonies and Moms for Liberty chapter chair interviews. After the premiere the audience gave a standing ovation to the producer.
Each year, Moms for Liberty presents awards to individuals, with each award representing a different accomplishment.
The first award presented was the Liberty Sword. This wooden sword is presented to an individual who strongly stands for the principles of Liberty. This year’s Liberty Sword was awarded to Jennifer Sey, CEO and Founder of XX-XY Athletics, a clothing brand advocating for the protection of women in private spaces and sports.
The following were also awarded to chapter chairs across the country:
- Teri Patrick, Polk County, IA – Abigail Adams Award for holding leaders accountable.
- Kimberly Zentz, Carroll County, MD – Deborah Sampson Award for courageous action.
- Shelley Gwartney, Tulsa County, OK – Mary Katherine Goddard Award for promoting liberty.
- Scarlett Johnson, Ozaukee County, WI – Mercy Otis Warren Award for shaping the narrative.
- Joleen Degelau, St. Croix County, WI – Penelope Barker Award for mobilizing.
- Kristy Davis, El Paso County, CO – Sybil Ludington Award for raising awareness.
- Patty Alexander, Warren County, IA – Phillis Wheatley Award for commitment to education
- Bill Brewer, Washington County, WI – George Washington Award for exemplifying reason, leadership and unity.
- Michelle Brown, Bay County, FL – Joyful Warrior Award for showing grace under pressure.
Three of those rewards were presented to Wisconsin chairs. This marked the first time any chapter chairs from Wisconsin were nominated for and received awards.
Select parts of the summit can be viewed on the Moms for Liberty YouTube channel.
