you think this is just a community center? know. it's more than that. partnering with a thousand community centers to create wi-fi so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> supporting c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> the first guest is the cofounder of moms for liberty joining from orlando florida thanks for joining us. could you remind the viewers what your organization's goal is and what you involve yourself with? >> the mission is to empower parents and to defend their

parental rights at all levels oe government. >> if the federal government, state government or if i understand correctly you go pretty much to school boards is a large part of b your effort. >> we are former school board members, so we do focus in and it seems the last 18 months we've worked up to the state legislative process because a lot of those laws impact school boards and parental rights so those are the areas we are focused on. >> host: what levels does your organization get concerned about the most? >> we as an organization are not a top down. we don't take issues and push them out over 200 chapters in 38 states. they have chapter meetings monthly and look over their agenda and decide which issues they are concerned with that are happening in their c school

districts. i will say what we find is there is always a common theme of parental rights being taken away with with the kids are learning, what is in the curriculum. the mask mandate seemed to be coming back. there is a steady consistent theme but all of those decisions are made locally. >> about curriculum concerns what are some of the things they heexpress to you? >> the over sexualization. we are finding a lot of that isi being pushed down into younger grades. topics parents just are not comfortable with having other people, teachers and guidance counselors talking about. >> gave an example. >> the national standards right now say he and k through three they want to teach ideology up to 7-years-old by the time they reach 7-years-old they should be

able to understandse completely that they can be a boy or girl or neither or both and a lot of parents don't want that discussed with their children. >> you recently held an event with governor joining. how many members do youni have w and how have you seen this grow since the last election and parental rights was a big concern on several statewide issues? >> we launched january 1st of 2021. we are 19 months old and have grown from two chapters in florida all the way up to 200 chapters and 38 states and we just reached 100,000. we are thrilled we just had the summit this past weekend. we had over 500 attendees and excellent keynote h speakers. the governor kicked it off and welcomed everybody. we the former u.s. secretary of education to speak about what it

was like and what was going on in the department of education. we had to the doctor come to speak and she was remarkable and doctor carson and his wife spoke one sunday. on top of that we had 20 or so strategy sessions where we were able to dig into some of the issues concerning them and they trained on how to run for schoor board and support campaigns and things of that nature. >> host: 20 democrats 202-748-8000, republicans, 202-748-8001. 202-748-8002 independence. you can text 8003. who funds the mosques for liberty? >> we are about to release and what you will find in the 990 is a good person has come from teacher to sales. nobody seems to believe that but that is the truth have thousands

of small donors that have come in and the second year we haven't released yet but we have had bigger donors, and that is a recent thing. >> are they from conservative organizations because you had a turning point usa, heritage. do they contribute? >> theve only thing they've contributed so far as the sponsored event most read 2,000 or 5,000. >> there's a write up in your organization and they say moms for liberty in nonprofit proclaiming to beis an advocate for parental rights using parents to advance the far right agenda and is gaining attention became a mainstream spectacle to attempt to paint it self driven by passionate parents but in reality it benefits right-wing funding and ties the political figures. how would you answer that?

>> that sounds like a horrible hitha piece. if you would have come to the summit a lot of the mainstream media did come and we gave them access. just walking around the hallways and said ask what you want and what they found is a true grassroots organization. all around the country some as far as hawaii and that wasn't cheap to pay for that to ticket to be around like-minded moms. media matters and other people that are trying to make us some powerful conglomerate attached to high funded donors, it's repulsive and offensive to me and our 100,000 moms deciding for the children. >> the moniker describing what you do, can you highlight that and how that definition works for the organization? >> absolutely. we are moms and we know our

children are watching as we are advocating and speaking at board meetings and capitals. some of these really do upset us angry so we want to remember our children are watching and we want to do this joyfully. we want to make the changes we believe in but with a smile. >> as far as the state affiliates or those you work with, what has been able to be achieved changing things on the school board or any level? >> we've had so many successes but sometimes it is unbelievable. here in florida this past year we did a legislative day where we brought 200 moms from florida to tallahassee and they put together a legislative agenda not something we pushed from the top down. they put together five bills they supported, brought them to the capital, met with legislators and we are thrilled

to see all five of those have been signed and are now in law so it was a very successful session for moms in liberty in florida. >> do they affiliate themselves with the situations like removing books from libraries and i know that is a topic of concern. can you explain that? >> absolutely. i'm a hugees fan of mental healh and have families that have struggled deeply and even as a school board member it was championed so they would have access to the tools they needed to get through difficult times. we are watching what's happeninn and there are some the various things going on. people are pushing their ideologies into the social and

emotional learning. it's more than talk about your feelings and how to overcome anger or depression and it's now turned into gender ideology and we don't want to talk to our children in public schools. >> is this something you discuss with your affiliates or states you can point to that practice these kind of things? >> my youngest is 14-years-old and a pulled him out of public school two years ago. we have not experienced this personally. he's going back into public school this fall so i would be happy to report back. we have chapters all over the country that i can point you to. we put most of it on the social media sites and you can go to twitter and we are constantly pushing out what parents are finding. >> i should mention you served on a local school board yourself

at one time. how does that inform what you are doing today? >> as i said, the other cofounder we served from 2016 to 2020, separate counties. we didn't know each other about what we learned the last 18 months working together is we have the same experience and what we saw was a lot of people that love children and want to do right by children, but there are people that have come of the ideologies that they are trying to push into curriculum and teaching. more and more of that is happening it because as parents haven't stepped up to theup responsibility they should be taking. schools have had to step in. they started giving children breakfast. in sum, 100% of the population receive free breakfast. schools have even had to step in and do dental and medical care and because parents are not doing their responsibilities, schools stepped in because they

care. what's happening is schools are making decisions on behalf of parents that shouldn't be made. parents need to take back those roadside responsibilities. >> moms for liberty joining in this conversation. winter gordon, democratic line, you are on with our guest. go ahead. >> caller: she said in the last 15 minutes they've had their chaptersve acting locallyo try to remove books that are not fit for the community but however with the passing of 1867 which moms for liberty heavily push for [inaudible] until the new training comes out this means we are potentially banning thousands of books.

>> school districts shouldn't be taking actions like you suggested and i'm not sure what the school district you're in but please reach out to us. we would love to speak to your school district. the department of education has not even put out there guidance yet on how to implement that law. so what i've l seen so far as school districts are going to the extreme and that isn't what should be happening at all. >> host: on the republican line, hello. >> caller: thank you so much. your group is a blessing. both public schools. the way that i feel about it is

if you want to teach [inaudible] if you want to teach them about abortion, then do that at home. there areny so many like you say that are not involved with their children. they just take them, drop them off and off they go. unfortunately those are the children that are prayed on and parents really do need to take responsibility. pay more attention. and the schools should be teaching academically. >> host: that is marie in south carolina. >> guest: the last part is 100% correct what we know from testing that's happened from

2019 and on is that two thirds of american fourth-graders are at grade level. when people hear that and understand that we have a crisis and that isn't good for the country. what we want is for schools to fix that problem and focus on that problem. we don't have time for teaching all these other things and ideology. we need to focus on teaching kids to read. >> we get pegged with a lot of things that are not true and i would like the time to clarify that. we believe teaching all the history, the ugly, the good, but what we don't want to see his history changed so and we want it to be age-appropriate. we've spoken out for certain grade levels we would like to see this moved up or please get this out of my second graders classroom it's not appropriate to be teaching this. we've been told because of that

we don't want to teach that topic or we are trying to whitewash history. i just want to be very clear that is not a true. we want to teach history and about slavery and all the horrors of it. jim crow laws, every bit of it. we have no desire to whitewash. >> when you say you don't want to see history changed, what do you mean by that? >> we have concerns about curriculum being injected into classrooms and we know the founding of the country when the slave ships arrived but to say the country started in 1619 that's not accurate answers from experts and historians that have disputed that yet to some school districts are still pushing that as truth and facts. >> host: carrollton texas you are on with our guest go ahead please. >> goodou morning.

i'm one of those people who very muchy encourages parents and others to become involved in school districts at the local level. as i listen to you, my question is you seem to be pushing a p political side to your organization. when the school board positions are supposed to be nonpolitical positions, when you talk about your convention it seems to be from the far right and that seems to be the agenda you are pushing so how do you feel about the positions being a political tool rather than a nonpartisan effort to serve the students of their districts? >> thank you for the question. some are nonpartisan and some are partisan. it varies from state to state. here they are nonpartisan and we want to say and make it clear that parental rights as a

nonpartisan issue. we support your right to raise your children however you choose and teach them whatever you want to teach them. as we want to teach our children. we have all kinds of people in the organization and clean the e conservative. we have democratic chairs running into lots of independents running the chapters that are members of the organization and we respect their right to raise their children how they want to raise them. the reasoning behind supporting the governor is we've brought him, we haven't put forth but we've gotten behind education, the legislation that supports parental rights. we would be happy to support him in the things he supporting's. so it's issues based it's not necessarilyy ideologically basd but issue-based. >> at the local chapters, do they campaign for school board

members were get behind their efforts? what do you encourage them to do to what level? >> we've given them the tools to vent candidates, so they hold forums. we tell them to invite all, independent, democrat, republican. we give them tools to put screeners so they can answer the question seem to learn who the candidates are and each chapter can indoors school board races. they are not allowed to get involved in others because this is the primary focus for the organization. after that point, they don't necessarily work as an organization to campaign for but they will announce the endorsementno and many of the members will get behind. >> from stiffening in florida, democrats line. door on with our guest. go ahead. >> caller: i have two questions. if you could be patient until

i'm completely done with my questions. your platform is built on parental rights but you only fight for the rights of parents who believe the sameig things yu do. what about parents like me who want their children taught in diverse environments where equality and equity are cornerstones? i want my daughter to have access and school libraries to books that men reflect many different cultures, religion, ethnicities and abilities. why do you represent yourself as representing parental rights when you fight against mine and second, your comment m on histo, your mission statement that you wantou accurate history taught n particular, the actr that was passed based on feedback from moms for liberty and it specifically prohibits teaching anything that makes anyone uncomfortable with regards to

diversity. how can anyone learn in that environment or anyone learning history in particular often it is very uncomfortable. it's nearly impossible for anyone to teach historical content and not make people uncomfortable. >> thank you. >> those are interesting questions. not making people uncomfortable isn't what the language says in the bill. so, where this comes from our actual lessons being taught not only in florida but around the country. things like the walks where they line kids up and you tell them, the privilege walks. if you have two parents you step forward. if you're in the military, so if your dad or mom's gone most of your life, your privileged. they divided kids into separated them and told them they are oprah servers and victims. this happened in duvall county. black parents came forward and

said their children were segregated to learn these lessons. those are the type ofed things e are fighting against. we feel that turns back the clock on equality. it is and that we are trying to whitewash history. we want the actual history taught but we don't want our children to be moving backwards. we want them to move forward to what america is now and how it's made great progress. >> it was last week that the american federation of teachers had their convention, and as their president characterized groups like yours as far as your efforts i want to play a little bit of what she had to say and get your response to it. >> why are the opponents [inaudible] about calling teachers pedophiles. why are some spreading these conspiracies and other ideas

which social media than stokes and amplifies. it's the anti--- the importance of public schooling as unifying american values and they see that americans value educators. we should believe them when they tell us that to achieve the goal of universal vouchers they need to be ruthless and brutal and they need to operate from a promise of universal public school distrust.

as our country becomes more diverse, these fear mongers pray on racial and economic anxieties. they stir up resentment. they create racial and ethnic tribalism. these despicable conspiracy theories like the great replacement theory while misrepresenting legitimate academic fields like critical race theory. this is not conservatism. it's extremism. >> what do you think of that characterization? >> i'm not really sure what that has to do with us. we are not fox news or any of the peoplele she listed so i'm t sure what that has to do with mom's for liberty.

we are trying to help our children. as for her and her union and organization, yes we go against her and the nea because you want to know why, because two thirds of american children can't read and yet when you look at the proclamation and the ideas of the things they were voting on on their sessions, they'd put in everything from foreign policy to abortion to all types of issues that absolutely have nothing to do with educating our chchildren. we really, really wish they would get back to focusing on that and i know that's what their members want. lets me make it very clear. mom's for liberty loves public education. we served on school boards and i gave four years of my life here in my county and i served with all my heart. i was in the schools, tutoring, mentoring, i did everything i could to help the district. i'm a graduate of public schools and my older children are graduates and my youngest son is being put back in public schools because i believe in them just

because we want to expose some of the issues in public schools and expose two thirds of american children are reading on grade level because we want them toer get better. we want them to do their job. i don't know how else and how more clear we can make that. we are not trying to destroy public education we are trying to save public education. >> on thepe line for new mexico. >> caller: it is comical to say the least -- incurious where you've been the last 40 years because the education has gone downhill. we don't teach anymore. the kids are not learning and you keep saying we want them to read but everything out of your mouth, where is your push on education? when i run to your site to see what you wrote about it's all

about grooming and pedophiles. what is your fear with people? i don't understand. if you're worried about education why aren't you just pushing education? >> the reason school districts are not doing better on education is because they are focused on these other issues. i don'ty want to talk about sex on national television but just a few weeks ago before school got out, a male teacher came forward, he was a coach and had to stand there in the locker room as a child that identifies as a male that has a female body came in within her middle school locker room and undressed while 40 middle school boys had to stand there. how are these children supposed to focus on learning and teachers supposed to focus l on the things they are supposed to focus on when they are experiencing these type of issue is because of policies created locally byav the state and now

even the federal government is getting involved so trust me i don't want too talk about sex ad i have no interest. they need to get it out of the schools and now. >> this is monique on twitter asking about the forum that you recently held about personal takeaways from the summit and asking if you had any surprises from what you learned from your members. >> our members are so amazing. the 500 mom's that came to tampa to learn and understand, we had no surprises. one of the great things, media was all over the place with 50 or 60 members on the first day walking the halls interviewing parents. and i think they found out exactly what we are saying that our moms have real concerns into stories of things they've experienced in public schools that they would like to see fixed. >> one more call from falls church virginia. matt on the democrats line. >> caller: i am a teacher, and i just want to see your

organization is driving teachers out of their professions. you are the people who are coming to the school boards, screaming about crazy things thatat have no impact on kids learning. i looked up your organization like the last o call routed andd found out you were funded by the national, what is it called, something that the council of national policy, which is run by the coke brothers and other right-wing billionaires. you have people on the board that are part of the campaign. basically, you are a wing of the republican party. your goal is to trash teachers because you believe teachers donate to democrats. i don't think anything you've actually espoused helps education. what are you doing to get actual teachers in the profession and going after the child predators in the private schools like the catholic church and the baptist church, which released tons of information on all of their child molesters in their schools? how are you fighting for those

kids? >> thanks, matt. >> there's so much to unpack. we've never taken a dollar from that organization you mentioned at the beginning, so i'm not sure what you looked up that said we were funded by that organization. we absolutely are not. we have three board members, myself, the former school board member and my good friend marie rogerson. i would like to addrese are driving teachers out. that is an untrue statement. teachers were at our summit. they are concerned about what they are being asked to teach children, and they do not want to teach it.they are leaving in droves because of policies by school districts and now the federal government better pushing them out of the classroom. host: the website for your organization is

resources for the transition into office