{"id":9695,"date":"2025-11-03T15:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/translash.org\/?post_type=the-wire&p=9695"},"modified":"2025-11-03T19:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:23:44","slug":"how-republicans-are-using-anti-trans-rhetoric-to-dismantle-public-education","status":"publish","type":"the-wire","link":"https:\/\/translash.org\/wire\/how-republicans-are-using-anti-trans-rhetoric-to-dismantle-public-education\/","title":{"rendered":"How Republicans Are Using Anti-Trans Rhetoric to Dismantle Public Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The right weaponizes anti-trans propaganda in their fight to privatize the American school system.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This article is a companion piece to <\/em>The Anti-Trans Hate Machine podcast<\/em><\/a>. You can listen to Season 4: The Destruction of Public Schools wherever you listen to podcasts, including <\/em>Spotify<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Apple Podcasts<\/em><\/a>.   <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

At a 2024 school board meeting in Mesa, Arizona, far-right activists urged board members to take action against an elementary school teacher named Tami Staas. Her crime? Supporting LGBTQ+ students and fostering an inclusive learning environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were articles being published calling for my removal, calling for me to be fired, calling for me to be deemed a \u2014 for lack of a better word \u2014 sexual predator,\u201d Staas told TransLash in an interview for the Anti-Trans Hate Machine podcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third grade teacher and head of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, Staas is one of many trans-inclusive educators the far right has targeted over the past five years. In addition to taking aim at school curricula<\/a> and pressuring school boards to ban books<\/a> by LGBTQ+ and Black authors, conservative politicians and influencers have been positioning public school teachers as the enemy. They purport that educators are indoctrinating kids, and insist that parents deserve every opportunity to avoid exposing their children to matters of diversity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by LOOKOUT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Staas has been repeatedly threatened and labeled a \u201cgroomer\u201d by right-wing activists. These attacks started in 2022, when Charlie Kirk, the recently assassinated far-right organizer, posted about Staas and her two trans children on the social media platform, X. In his post, Kirk referred to the teacher\u2019s work as \u201cextremist gender ideology that is infecting our public schools and mutilating our kids.\u201d In 2024, a local conservative activist wrote a blog post calling Staas a danger to children<\/a>, and a future Mesa school board member accused her of indoctrinating students. Staas has refused to back down<\/a>, and has since filed a defamation suit against the blogger and the school board member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, conservative activists have implemented a strategy to undermine trust in public education by scapegoating trans people and weaponizing anti-trans propaganda. A disparate alliance of conspiracy theorists, paramilitary groups, conservative advocacy groups, and so-called \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d activists is targeting trans people and their allies in public schools across the United States. These groups are not only creating a hostile environment for trans kids; they are working toward privatizing the entire school system \u2014 destroying public education, and our democracy, as we know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dividing Local Communities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the Pennridge School Board in Bucks County, Pennsylvania elected a supermajority of conservative candidates. During their tenure, they enacted policies that restricted trans students from using their chosen bathrooms and prevented them from playing on sports teams that aligned with their gender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Imara Jones (left) interviews Laura Foster (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Laura Foster, a Pennridge mom and activist who pushed back against these policies, lamented the spread of anti-trans hate in her community. \u201cThe narrative around demonizing trans kids kind of worked in our community,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, to this day, I think it works in our community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her efforts to challenge the school board on their discriminatory rulings, Foster learned that the election of these conservative officials in her politically purple district wasn\u2019t organic. It was part of a coordinated effort by far-right activists to reshape education and seize power from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instrumental in the rise of anti-trans bigotry in Bucks County and across the United States is Moms for Liberty. Described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an anti-government group<\/a> known for spreading conspiracy theories, Moms for Liberty was founded by a trio of conservative Florida school board members in 2021. The group grew rapidly with funding from legacy conservative institutions<\/a> and Julie Jenkins Fancelli<\/a> \u2014 the heiress to the Publix Super Market fortune who helped fund the January 6 rally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moms for Liberty aimed to take over school boards across the country in order to protect what they call \u201cparental rights.\u201d The organization has a catchphrase, often trumpeted by their leaders: \u201cWe do not coparent with the government.\u201d They believe parents deserve control over any information or education their children receive, and they are vehemently opposed to the acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ people \u2014 especially trans people \u2014 in schools. Moms for Liberty currently advertises over 300 chapters across 48 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially formed to protest mask mandates and school closures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moms for Liberty changed its agenda within months of its founding. The organization began to rally against inclusive education in public schools. Members advocated for curricula that minimizes the history of racism in the United States, and coordinated bans on books and reading material with LGBTQ+ representation or anti-racist themes. Soon, members of Moms for Liberty began lobbying against LGBTQ-inclusive teachers across the country, whom they accused of \u201cgrooming\u201d children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conservative group quickly gained allies in some of the most notorious groups on the far right. Members of the Proud Boys, the paramilitary group that stormed the Capitol in 2021, worked in concert<\/a> with Moms for Liberty chapters around the country to protest<\/a> at school board meetings. (The national Moms for Liberty organization has since denied any affiliation<\/a> with the Proud Boys.) In Sarasota, Florida, Proud Boys openly campaigned to elect three far-right school board candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty. All three won their 2022 elections. Proud Boys also violently protested<\/a> in Los Angeles when the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) voted to recognize LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decentralized organizing followed an overall shift in far-right tactics after the failed January 6 insurrection. Conservatives weren\u2019t able to enact immediate, sweeping change at the national level, so they pivoted to more local strategies<\/a>. At Moms for Liberty\u2019s annual conference in 2023, conservative educational consultant Jordan Adams \u2014 previously the K-12 curriculum director at Hillsdale College, an ultra-conservative Christian institution working to curtail education on racism<\/a> in schools across the country \u2014 ran a workshop<\/a> that explained the group\u2019s overarching strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other side\u2026can\u2019t counter everything. Everything should be up for debate,\u201d he said, describing bombardment tactics to overwhelm sitting school board members and progressive advocates like Laura Foster. This approach to school board meetings sows chaos, making it easier to divide local communities, flip board seats, and seize power. In 2022, conservatives saw results when nearly half of all candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty won their respective school board elections<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education advocate Eliza Byard, co-founder of The Campaign for Our Shared Future, is particularly aware of Moms for Liberty\u2019s impact on school board races. According to her, school board members were not equipped to respond to the sudden influx of criticism, questions, and protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSchool board meetings were being held virtually and\u2026being live-streamed. So all of a sudden, school board meetings were television,\u201d Byard said of the early 2020s. \u201cHow many school board officials have any media training? None. \u2026So you also set up a situation where\u2026a determined advocate or an extremist who showed up at a school board meeting could have a very large remote audience.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Byard sees this effort as part of a larger war on democracy. \u201cWhen you look at the attacks\u2026anti-trans attacks and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, there is \u2014 at their root \u2014 a desire to eliminate the idea that there is room for everyone in our society\u2026 to foster a healthy multiracial democracy,\u201d Byard said. \u201c[School boards are] not built to be defenders of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

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Attacks on school boards have diminished trust in public education on both sides of the aisle. In September 2025, Gallup reported that more than 60 percent<\/a> of U.S. adults are dissatisfied with the current state of public educatio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dismantling Public Education<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another instrumental figure in the campaign to erode the American public\u2019s trust in public schools is political operative Chris Rufo. He\u2019s a proponent of universal school choice: a policy that allows parents to receive public funding (also known as a school voucher) to send their children to a private school of their choosing. The budget for these tuition vouchers comes out of taxpayer money that would otherwise fund public schools \u2014 many of which are already chronically underfunded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing before a massive crowd at Hillsdale College in 2022, Rufo laid out the far right\u2019s plan<\/a> to implement universal school choice programs nationwide. \u201cThe best strategy in the immediate term is the siege of the institutions,\u201d Rufo told the crowd. \u201cTo get universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservatives have been attempting to gut the public school system<\/a> in favor of a privatized one for decades. Historically, voucher programs have been unpopular, as they divert resources away from public education. But the far right has been cultivating anti-trans and anti-Black hate as a tool to sow distrust in public schools, allowing privatization efforts to succeed where they previously haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to John Rogers, director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA, the far right deliberately targets purple and swing districts when mobilizing against trans-inclusive teachers and school board members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a purposeful effort to try to build political power, to try to deepen and energize the [conservative] base of support within those purple communities by amplifying attacks on\u2026educators who were supporting queer youth,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amplifying anti-trans and racist rhetoric serves the far right\u2019s goal of gaining power and influence over local communities and school districts. Rogers further explained: \u201cI think that the election of Donald Trump has affirmed the theory of some on the right \u2014 that attacking public schools, attacking the teaching of race and racism, attacking queer youth, [and] attacking educators for supporting queer youth is a way to energize the base\u2026 to win political advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To SPLC research analyst Maya Henson Carey, the contemporary political moment is reminiscent of the period around Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>, when white nationalists and conservative mom groups came together to fight integration with racist propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow [the target is] trans: \u2018Do you want your kids in schools with these trans kids that are going to corrupt your kids \u2014 with these groomers?\u2019 It’s very similar rhetoric,\u201d said Henson Carey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By scapegoating trans people, conservatives have created a bogeyman to rally against. And by creating a common enemy to run from (trans people in public schools), they have also constructed a safe haven to run to (private schools, made accessible via the golden ticket \u2014 a school voucher). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first universal voucher program in the United States was enacted in Arizona in 2022, on the heels of anti-trans bills<\/a> that barred trans girls from playing sports in public schools and banned trans surgeries for minors \u2014 even with parental consent. The results for the state have been financially catastrophic. According to Arizona\u2019s budget office, the universal voucher program cost over $800 million<\/a> in 2025. The program continues to siphon money from public education, and at least 20 schools across six districts<\/a> have been forced to close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 30 states now have voucher programs in some capacity, opening the door for even more public funds to be rerouted to private schools. Florida, the home base of Moms for Liberty, modeled its own universal voucher program after Arizona\u2019s in 2023. In a budget summary for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, The Florida Policy Institute reported the program\u2019s cost at nearly $5 billion<\/a>. The independent non-profit also documented a decrease<\/a> in the proportion of state funds allocated to Florida public schools: 88 percent for the 2021-2022 fiscal year dropped to 77 percent in 2024-2025. Funding for vouchers over this same period nearly doubled from 12 percent to 23 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just conservative actors like Rufo who are championing universal school choice \u2014 there are larger forces at play. The Council for National Policy (CNP) is a secretive steering committee that has been directing the agenda of the conservative movement for more than 40 years. The group, founded by Christian nationalists, hosts triannual gatherings where the most powerful right-wing leaders in the country congregate to shape policy and strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to journalist Anne Nelson, who investigated the CNP and other far-right groups for her book, \u201cShadow Network,\u201d the council initially formed because these Christian bigwigs felt America was headed in the wrong direction. \u201cThe CNP came together around 1980, and it was already adversarial towards public schools because of integration,\u201d said Nelson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CNP counts leaders of parental rights groups and some of the most prominent lobbyists for school vouchers as members \u2014 including the DeVos and Prince families, who are among the largest financial contributors to the CNP. Rich DeVos (former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos\u2019s father-in-law) served two stints<\/a> as the council\u2019s president, Edgar Prince (Betsy\u2019s father) separately served as vice president, and Elsa Prince Broekhuizen (Betsy\u2019s mother) served on CNP\u2019s board of governors. Betsy DeVos herself is one of the biggest backers of the universal voucher movement; she has put millions of dollars into school privatization efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nelson, who has also written a book on the rise of Nazi Germany, noted that attacks on public schools are a key strategy of authoritarian movements. \u201cPublic schools in the United States are absolutely fundamental to democracy and our concept of civic life,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIf you destroy public schools and public education and you remove the protections, you create a population that is much easier to lie to and to manipulate and to indoctrinate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

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The widespread loss of trust in the public school system is not simply a byproduct of the far right\u2019s war on diverse and inclusive education \u2014 it\u2019s the intended outcome. With the CNP at the helm, the conservative coalition is making headway toward their goals of an education system dominated by Christian private schools, <\/a>and a country dominated by the far right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending Democracy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite declining levels of trust in public schools, people across the country are still fighting to preserve this vital public good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liz Barker, a school psychologist and mother of four, decided to run for a Sarasota school board seat against a Moms for Liberty candidate. She recognized the severity of the organization\u2019s impact on her district when her daughter came home from sixth grade with chilling news. \u201cShe said, \u2018Mom, I just helped my English teacher pack up our classroom library,\u2019\u201d Barker recalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Liz Barker (right) talking with Imara Jones (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian sect, Barker was not allowed to attend public school herself. She was homeschooled as a child, and fought with her parents about her education until 10th grade, when she finally declared, \u201cI\u2019m getting on that bus, so get on board\u2026I\u2019m going to public school.\u201d Hearing that her own children would have increasingly restricted access to books was the last straw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat’s when it struck me that my daughter was now going to have an experience like I would have had if I hadn’t gone to public school. That she was not gonna have access to resources and different ways of thinking, and different people, and different ideas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barker defeated her conservative opponent and became a school board official with help from her community. Multiple progressive advocacy groups supported her candidacy, including Support Our Schools, a group working to preserve public education; and Social Equity through Education Alliance, a youth-led organization fighting to win back Florida school boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Moms for Liberty’s strategy to overwhelm and overtake school boards was initially successful, many communities have since caught on to their tactics and challenged them accordingly. Laura Foster and other parents in Bucks County campaigned for progressive candidates during the Pennridge School Board elections in 2023. They won all five open seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2023, Moms for Liberty has lost more races than they won<\/a> in the first two years of their existence. The movement to destroy public schools is only in its early stages of success, and pro-democracy activists say there\u2019s still time to reverse these efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers\u2019 unions are also working to push back against the promotion of anti-trans hate and the privatization of the school system. In March of this year, the National Education Association (NEA) \u2014 the country\u2019s largest teachers\u2019 union \u2014 sued the federal government<\/a> over its attempt to cut funding to schools that have diversity initiatives in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEA president Becky Pringle told TransLash, \u201cThroughout history, it has been educators who have stood in the way of an authoritarian\u2019s march toward unfettered power.\u201d She knows that even in this rapidly changing landscape, teachers are still among the most trusted figures in many communities. \u201cWe need [teachers] to be courageous, to stand up for their students in a way that they know they’re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arizona, despite ongoing harassment, Tami Staas continues to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m gonna continue to stand up at those board meetings because if I don’t, what does that say to the kids that I’ve served?\u201d Staas said. \u201cMy trans friends, my gender-nonconforming community \u2014 they need somebody who can walk in those spaces safely and talk for them when they can’t. If I walk away, I walk away from them. I can’t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right weaponizes anti-trans propaganda in their fight to privatize the American school system. This article is a companion piece to The Anti-Trans Hate Machine podcast. You can listen to Season 4: The Destruction of Public Schools wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.    At a 2024 school board meeting in Mesa, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9712,"template":"","topic":[],"class_list":["post-9695","the-wire","type-the-wire","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Republicans Are Using Anti-Trans Rhetoric to Dismantle Public Education - TransLash Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/translash.org\/wire\/how-republicans-are-using-anti-trans-rhetoric-to-dismantle-public-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Republicans Are Using Anti-Trans Rhetoric to Dismantle Public Education - TransLash Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The right weaponizes anti-trans propaganda in their fight to privatize the American school system. 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