Combatting Disinformation at Local School Board Meetings

October 16, 2021

Indivisible Illinois Social Justice Alliance (IISJA)

Agenda

• Recap: The Sept 18 meeting video is available at �https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR_r5oJzkfY
• Takeaways from our Sept 18 meeting
• Responding to conspiracy theories
• New groups, Updates and new information
• Open discussion on your school board meetings

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Some Takeaways from September 18

• The disruptions at school board meetings are not grassroots inspired
• Well funded national organizations with the goal of taking over school boards are driving this
• This includes the harassment and intimidation of common sense board members causing them to resign
• The religious right is deeply involved

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What Are the Issues?

• Masks
• Vaccines
• Critical Race Theory (CRT)
• Illinois SB818 – Health Education

• LGBTQ
• Social Distancing
• Covid Quarantines���

Actually, it’s none of these.

These are just “dog whistle” trojan horse issues

to get the base involved.

So, What Is It Really About?

• It’s about taking control of the school board followed by control of the school curriculum
• It’s about getting candidates elected to the board who can then run for higher offices
• It’s about getting parents to remove kids from public schools to enroll them in private schools.
• There are well funded organizations that have the above as their stated goals. We reviewed many during the Sept 18 meeting. There are more!

Background for This Meeting

• Local “grass roots” groups harassing school boards across the country may not be so local getting information from well funded national organizations
• Local school boards around the country are increasingly becoming cauldrons of anger and political division, boiling with disputes over such issues as COVID-19 mask rules, the treatment of transgender students and how to teach the history of racism and slavery in America. *
• In Pennsylvania, a Republican donor is planning to pour $500,000 into school board races. * (School board races are supposed to be non-partisan)
• “We’re in a culture war,” said Jeff Holbrook, head of Rapid City’s (IA) Pennington County GOP. *

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https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-school-boards-e41350b7d9e3662d279c2dad287f7009

More Background Information

• A loose network of conservative groups with ties to major Republican donors and party-aligned think tanks is quietly lending firepower to local activists engaged in culture war fights in schools across the country.
• While they are drawn by the anger of parents opposed to school policies on racial history or COVID-19 protocols like mask mandates, the groups are often run by political operatives and lawyers standing ready to amplify local disputes.
• In a wealthy Milwaukee suburb, a law firm heavily financed by a conservative foundation that has fought climate change mitigation and that has ties to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election helped parents seeking to recall Mequon-Thiensville school board members, chiefly over the board’s hiring of a diversity consultant. A new national advocacy group, Parents Defending Education, promoted the Wisconsin parents’ tactics as a model.

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https://apnews.com/article/business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-3157002e9d011e5283f55886b1c7078a

Illinois Indivisible Truth Brigade

• We have learned that arguing with people on Facebook or twitter or Instagram or anywhere else doesn’t work.  When we comment or answer postings that contain misinformation we unfortunately just boost the original post so more people see the lies.�
• Instead, we are creating our own truthful posts to counter the hurtful lies that are out there.  We do that by creating “truth sandwiches” - a statement that is true, followed by a response to a lie questioning the author’s motives followed by another true statement.�
• We have found that people respond best to positive statements so a truth sandwich can be a great way to get the truth out there and discredit lies.

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• To join the private Truth Brigade FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3994209933957098

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School Board Harassment

• Lawrence O’Donnell Interviews Brevard County School Board Member Jennifer Jenkins�https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/fl-school-board-member-details-terrifying-harassment-by-anti-maskers-123494981950
• Jennifer Jenkins, Brevard County School Board member, stays strong against extreme harassment refusing to resign �– This is a must watch
• This is happening all over.
• Two St. Charles, IL, D303 board members have resigned in 2021 due to harassment and intimidation threats�https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20211014/district-303-school-board-member-resigns-over-unrelenting-harassment
• Harassment and Intimidation at Algonquin, IL, D300� https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20211002/district-300-school-board-employees-face-threats-board-president-says

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Critical race theory turning school boards into GOP proving grounds

• Frustrations over how kids are taught about systemic racism have turned once-sleepy school board elections into hyperlocal skirmishes with the power to polarize how a new generation learns about U.S. history — and grow the ranks of Republican politicians.
• But it’s the local races — outside the spotlight, in elections that attract just a few hundred voters — that may define what students learn in the classroom for years to come.
• While such elections are often (supposed to be) nonpartisan, the Republican Party sees a rich opportunity to build a pipeline of new political candidates.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/08/critical-race-theory-school-boards-510381

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Right-wing groups are training activists to take over school boards as part of ‘critical race theory’ campaign strategy

• Wealthy Republican-affiliated groups are raising money to “train” candidates to run for office as the GOP seeks a second Tea Party movement
• The right-wing campaign to stifle teaching and discussion about racism in U.S. history and institutions is fear-mongering about critical race theory to mobilize right-wing activists and conservative voters to take over local school boards.
• “The left has spent many years and vast funding to stack local school boards,” the Leadership Institute’s website claims. “America’s children suffer the effects of this liberal domination every day.” The group adds, “Patriotic Americans must take back the schools.”

https://flux.community/peter-montgomery/2021/08/right-wing-groups-training-activists-take-over-school-boards-part-critical

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CRT

• Critical race theory is a legal framework to examine how racism is embedded in laws and institutions. It’s not a K-12 course.
• But conservative activists have co-opted the term to describe discussions of race and gender they believe are too progressive.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/schools-facing-critical-race-theory-battles-are-diversifying-rapidly-analysis-n1278834?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Opponents of critical race theory attend a packed Loudoun County School board meeting in Ashburn, Va., on June 22, 2021

GOP Operative Says It Hurts White Kids When ‘Kids of Color Feel They Belong’

• A Republican campaign manager for school board candidates in a Connecticut town has sparked controversy by telling participants of a virtual education forum that “helping kids of color to feel they belong has a negative effect on white, Christian, or conservative kids.”
• Mary Beeman put forth that bizarre argument during a virtual education forum where the right-wing boogeyman known as “critical race theory” was discussed, according to local news outlet WFSB. She later sought to clarify her statement, which she admitted was “poorly worded,” and claimed it had been shown “out of context.”
• In trying to mop up the mess, Beeman said she’d been referring to “students who may have staunch Judeo-Christian values, or simply are conservative thinkers,” and are now being “bullied into submission by their teachers and fellow students with left-leaning ideologies.”
• Bill Bloss, the Guilford school board chairman, made clear he wasn’t buying Beeman’s excuses for the racist remark, questioning “exactly what context would that comment be positive in.”

Allison Quinn

News Editor

Published Oct. 07, 2021 5:54AM ET 

https://www.wfsb.com/news/guilford-gop-school-board-campaign-manager-says-helping-children-of-color-feel-like-they-belong/article_61cef1b0-26eb-11ec-aa85-bf2ec0443b85.html

It’s Not Indoctrination As NC Alleges!�It’s An Unsanitized Version of America’s History

• Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (F.A.C.T.S.) was
• created in response to reports received by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor regarding
• alleged cases of indoctrination in North Carolina public schools. The F.A.C.T.S. Task Force
• aims to provide support to parents, teachers, and, most importantly, students in North
• Carolina by creating an infrastructure by which individuals can report perceived instances of
• indoctrination that they see or experience within the state education system. It was the goal
• of the Office that, by doing so, it might obtain a better understanding of the scope and
• breadth of this problem and whether or not these were isolated cases or were a part of a
• larger and more widespread issue.

Office of the Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson

Informing the future of North Carolina___________________________________________________

Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfHOpZGD4EeHcGD6y1AeVBuGUZkpNUia/view

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Religious Right Pushes Effort To Whitewash History and Restrict Teaching About Systemic Racism

• Under the guise of protecting children from the supposed threat of “critical race theory, the campaign against teaching about racism has taken form in incendiary right-wing media segments, attacks on teachers and school officials, and state and federal legislation.�
• In the hands of right-wing activists—pushed by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, former President Donald Trump, and other Republican officials, “critical race theory” as a term has lost all meaning. Instead, it has become an all-purpose label with which to smear teachers and liberal politicians as anti-white, Marxist, or America-haters—and to justify the whitewashing of U.S. history.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-pushes-effort-to-whitewash-history-and-restrict-teaching-about-systemic-racism/

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Family Research Council Raises Money for Right-Wing School Board Takeover Campaign

• Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is raising money to promote right-wing takeovers of local school boards, which he claims is necessary to “protect the hearts and minds of the next generation from the left-wing agenda.”
• Perkins​, ignoring the national right-wing groups (already) heavily involved in the right-wing school board takeover effort, portrayed the campaign as a grassroots uprising
• FRC Action, Perkins said, is “focusing our national expertise on key local elections by providing, at no charge, much needed resources to help replace radical school board members with Christian and conservative parents and other qualified candidates.”

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-raises-money-for-right-wing-school-board-takeover-campaign/

Stephen Miller Defines CRT

• AFL (America First Legal) President (and former Trump aid) Stephen Miller issued the following statement:
• “AFL is committed to defeating the illegal equity agenda and the poisonous ideology driving it: Critical Race Theory. In that mission, AFL is standing up for parents who are trying to save their children from racist CRT indoctrination.
• Critical race theory as applied to education holds that in the United States the education system is inherently racist and exists to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.

https://www.aflegal.org/news/afl-demands-materials-from-pennsylvania-school-district-that-refuses-to-disclose-ties-to-radical-education-consultants-pushing-critical-race-theory-in-the-classroom

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https://www.chalkbeat.org/22525983/map-critical-race-theory-legislation-teaching-racism

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We’ve also created a timeline of key events and key documents that trace the critical race theory backlash from its beginnings in the Trump Administration.

at the website below

https://www.chalkbeat.org/22525983/map-critical-race-theory-legislation-teaching-racism

at the website below

FAIR�Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism

• Be careful. FAIR is not what they purport to be. https://www.fairforall.org/about/
• Website lists their Mission as :�The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding and humanity.
• It also states:�Increasingly, American institutions — colleges and universities, businesses, government, the media and even our children’s schools — are enforcing a cynical and intolerant orthodoxy. This orthodoxy requires us to identify ourselves and each other based on immutable characteristics like skin color, gender and sexual orientation. It pits us against one another, and diminishes what it means to be human.

Congressman Rodney Davis IL13

• This week, I joined a group of House Republicans to urge U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to provide answers on the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) use of federal law enforcement to intervene in local education.�
• Threats of violence made against any public official should absolutely be investigated and prosecuted, if warranted, by local law enforcement. They are the appropriate entity to handle these situations.�
• I have great concerns that FBI and U.S. Attorney intervention in local education combined with the vagueness of the Attorney General’s directives will have a chilling effect on public participation in school board meetings.�
• Parents have every right to voice their opinion and speak out on actions taken by school officials, particularly those they elect.�
• The Attorney General has an obligation to guarantee that his DOJ will not inhibit the First Amendment rights of American citizens.

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October 15, 2021 News Letter

Koch-backed group fuels opposition to school mask mandates, leaked letter shows

• Washington Post October 1, 2021
• A template letter circulated by Independent Women’s Forum offers a glimpse into a well resourced campaign against public health regulations
• It is motivated, the author explains, by a desire to “speak up for what is best for my kids.” And it fervently conveys the author’s feelings to school leaders: “I do not believe little kids should be forced to wear masks, and I urge you to adopt a policy that allows parental choice on this matter for the upcoming school year.”
• But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors.

Independent Women’s Network

• From their homepage
• Do you worry about the country? Do you want to engage with fellow patriotic women (men too!) who aren’t triggered by honest debate? Do you want to bring back civility, free speech, and economic liberty
• We are a home for the independent, civically engaged, truth seekers, freedom fighters, game changers, and policy makers who want a secure platform for honest conversations about everything from politics and culture to education and family. It’s a place where you can get tools to be an effective leader, learn about issues, advocate for your family and country, engage with great people, and have lots of fun while doing it.

https://iwnetwork.com/

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Americans For Prosperity (AFP)

• That’s why AFP-IL is proud to present our Prairie State Promise campaign to build a brighter future for all residents of our state
• Stop Tax Hikes & Provide Tax Relief 
• Stop Spending Money We Don’t Have
• Prepare for a Future Health Care Crisis Now
• Make our Communities Safer & Give Second Chances
• Education Empowerment for Everyone
• End Corruption & Corporate Welfare

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https://americansforprosperity.ivolunteers.com/ContactOfficials/IL-PrairieStatePromise-2021

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Americans For Prosperity

• The list looks great – right?�But what does AFP actually advocate for?
• Say NO to a government takeover of prescription drugs!
• Stand Up for Americans Workers by Opposing the “Infrastructure” Plan

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Americans For Prosperity

• Promoting the demise of public education��Policymakers should enact education reforms that empower families to have the freedom to access a range of educational services tailored to their child’s unique learning needs, eliminates top down burdens on hardworking educators, and helps shift the K-12 system from a standardized model, to a personalized model.

https://americansforprosperity.ivolunteers.com/Sign/Students-Deserve-Quality-Educational-Opportunities

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Prairie State Promise

• A Future We Can Trust.�A Promise We Can Believe In.
• The Prairie State Promise encourages legislators to …
• Stop Tax Hikes & End Corporate Welfare
• Stop Spending Money We Don’t Have
• Prepare for a Future Health Care Crisis Now
• Reduce Crime & Give Second Chances
• Education Empowerment for Everyone
• End Corruption and Restore Trust in Illinois

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https://prairiestatepromise.com/issues/

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Change the Path of Illinois with the�Prairie State Promise Legislative Agenda

Similar but not the same as on the AFP site

Prairie State Promise

• No More Tax Hikes
• Illinoisans already pay enough with the highest combined state and local tax in the nation. The Prairie State Promise encourages legislators to stop the tax hikes that keep residents from financial success.
• Fact Check�Actually, New Yorkers face the highest tax burden, with 14.1 percent of income going to state and local taxes. Connecticut (12.8 percent) and Hawaii (12.7 percent) followed. Illinois is 11.1%�https://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/

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Total Tax Burden by State

Total Tax Burden by State

Action Opportunities

• Contact School Board by email (Google/Bing search district and Board of Education, e.g. “D211 Board of Education”
• Attend School Board meetings
• Sign up to speak or show support; Google the Board of Education to know the policies for Public Comments and where they fit into the agenda. Includes time limits and how to sign up to speak
• View Board meeting videos livestreamed or after the fact. Many district meetings are now live streamed and saved
• Recognize the groups showing up. Are they organized and with particular organizations. Network after meetings with like minded individuals and groups
• Join local progressive groups (school board specific or community); Indivisible, NWSOFA, Democrats. There are a lot of Facebook pages for these groups and also specifically for school district. I’ve seen a trend toward these FB groups being private

• Helpful for medical professionals, mental professionals and lawyers to be partners and to speak at meetings. They are usually the people interviewed for newspaper articles
• Letters to the Editor. Great example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bTYiQV_82xIsCBVhymqtcxQWT3uabDxb/view?usp=sharing
• Create a group to attend Board meetings together; wear similar colors, masks to support
• Online petitions in favor of our issues or to provide support
• Find out about School Board curriculum policies. CRT is NOT taught in lower education. It’s only taught in higher education
• Find out about your district’s Equity or Wellness programs
• Run for office
• Find progressive people to run for office

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Action Follow Up For November

• For our November 20^th meeting, if you attend school board meetings, please plan to take a few minutes to update the group on that meeting
• Did you speak?
• Did the ANTI groups attend?
• Did the ANTI groups speak? Harass the Board?
• Anything else that would help the group’s mission to better understand actions to combat disinformation and to support our school boards
• Send an email to Jim McGrath stanorjim@aol.com or Joyce Slavik at joyce.Slavik@gmail.com summarizing your experience so we can prepare the November meeting agenda
• If you find a new group or get info on your legislators similar to the Rodney Davis post, send us an email

Also, we are planning to build a coalition to counter the ANTI movement and to build support for our school boards.�More at our November meeting.

Thank You for Attending

Time for Q&A

Backup �September 18 Meeting

Let’s Name Names�

National Groups

State Policy Network (SPN)

• A web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom�- Its stated mission is "to provide strategic assistance to independent research organizations devoted to discovering and developing market-oriented solutions to state and local public policy issues.“�
• It operates as the policy, communications, and litigation arm of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), giving the cookie-cutter ALEC agenda a sheen of academic legitimacy and state-based support�

State Policy Network (SPN)

• Although many SPN groups claim to be independent and non-partisan, they promote a policy agenda -- including union-busting, attacks on the tort bar, and voter suppression -- that is highly-partisan and electoral in nature�
• There are 65 “Affiliate” members, all with a different name but with the same agenda�
• SPN is a private group with membership by invitation only

ALEC�American Legislative Exchange Council

• Formed in 1973 in Chicago
• Describes itself as the largest “membership association of state legislators,” but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations.
• ALEC’s agenda extends into almost all areas of law. Its bills undermine environmental regulations and deny climate change; support school privatization; undercut health care reform; defund unions and limit their political influence; restrain legislatures’ abilities to raise revenue through taxes; mandate strict election laws that disenfranchise voters; increase incarceration to benefit the private prison industry, among many other issues. ^[3]
• ALEC is an "associate" member of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing “think tanks” in every state across the country

Illinois Policy Institute (IPI)

• IPI is working to “retake control” of schools. �In May 2020, IPI’s president & CEO, John Tillman, said his organization is working with parents on, “how to message, how to engage and really retake control of their local communities and particularly the schools”�
• Administers the IPU (Illinois Parents Union) FB page with Kati Byrne Spaniak�
• IPI “Grass Roots” Spinoffs – Next page�

IPI Grassroots Spinoffs

• Tillman is Board chair at Think Freely Media
• Crowdskout LLC a for profit data and marketing company : Tillman is a part owner
• Illinois Opportunity Project founded by Tillman
• Government Accountability Office – Tillman is founder chairman and CEO

• Justice Liberty – Tillman is Founder & director
• Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity : Tillman is Chairman
• Leadership Consulting LLC : Tillman is Owner
• Waldo Group/Waldo Holdings LLC : Tillman is Majority owner

IPI Donors

• Rauner Family Foundation
• Uihlein Foundation
• Also contributed to Liberty Justice Center and Think Freely Media
• Mercer Family Foundation
• Donors Trust
• led and funded by the Koch brothers

Awake Illinois

Awake IL is educating parents and schools on the existential threat of Critical Race Theory which is applied in schools via "Culturally Responsive Teaching“

Learn more about CRT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Awake Illinois

• Started in Naperville, IL in 2021 by a school board candidate who lost. From the Awake IL website:
• This grassroots movement transcends all labels.
• We are pro-human.
• We are nonpartisan.
• We are respectful of debate.
• We are proud Americans.
• We are Awake Illinois.
• Local chapters are starting NOW.
• We are a social welfare organization protecting our children, our liberties,
• and our American way of life.
• Join the movement to educate yourself,
• engage in meaningful discussions,
• and enjoy being part of the progress.

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• We are Awake IL and they can't cancel us.

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Awake Illinois�Policy on Civil Rights and Equality in Education

• Proposal to School Districts and Affiliated Agencies�
• https://cecd1801-13eb-45b5-9474-dc30d621c10d.filesusr.com/ugd/b99d36_d897d17d3125479a9bb04eec455239e1.pdf

28 Local Awake Chapters Across Illinois

Information on Awake Founder�Shannon Adcock

• Naperville parent Shannon Adcock is seeking all the help she can find in the fight against Critical Race Theory.�
• Adcock and company recently launched the website AwakeIL.com as a way to share information with others that are likewise opposed to the teachings becoming part of the curriculum in more classrooms across the state

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• https://prairiestatewire.com/stories/605946696-group-opposes-critical-race-theory-as-non-violent-anti-child-ideological-war-in-classrooms

Illinois Parents Union (IPU)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReopenIllinoisSchools/

Illinois Parents Union

• - over 11,000 members
• IPU is pressuring school boards to adopt dangerous positions that are opposed by the Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics & Illinois Department of Public Health.
• IPU’s and IPI’s goals are broader than COVID-related issues. They are trying to “retake control” of public schools, prohibit lessons on racism and sexual education, and end public sector unions
• While IPU is one of the largest, most active and most well-funded groups advocating for unsafe and radical changes to Illinois’s schools, it is one of many far-right groups including: Awake Illinois, Quincy WSOS (We Stand for Our Students), Parents Defending Education, Citizens for Renewing America, Education First Alliance and the innocuously named, Illinois High School Sports Central.

Leadership Institute

Conservatives focus on the nation’s school boards

Leadership Institute

• The Leadership Institute announces the launch of a new program to train the next generation of conservative candidates for the nation’s school boards.
• "With this vital new program, the Leadership Institute will now prepare conservatives all across America to challenge the left's control over the nation's locally elected school boards."�Morton C. Blackwell�President, Leadership Institute
• https://leadershipinstitute.org/?utm_term=leadership%20institute&utm_campaign=NA_PD_S_LI+Brand&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=3450852247&hsa_cam=12361183873&hsa_grp=120810073671&hsa_ad=500143413822&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-429440278522&hsa_kw=leadership%20institute&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm9yJBhDTARIsABKIcGbj_lgZUjgtuN9CezO-n9h9FLMmfaxCzKnpxQ0v616QLTWuDNWFMz0aAmQJEALw_wcB

Turning Point USA (TPUSA)

• A nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values on high school, college, and university campuses�
• The organization was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery�
• TPUSA's sister organizations include Turning Point Action, Turning Point Endowment, and Students for Trump, and Turning Point Faith�
• The group also works closely with PragerU. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, TPUSA "is now the dominant force in campus conservatism�
• Turning Point USA has grown from nothing in June 2012 to having representation on over 1,200 high schools and college campuses nationwide and over 150 full time staff�

Funding for TPUSA

• Marcus Foundation
• Bruce Rauner
• Darwin Deason
• Uihlein Family Foundation

• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Donors Trust
• Thomas W. Smith Foundation
• Einhorn Family Charitable Trust

No Left Turn In Education

• A rapidly growing national group that supports parents as they fight against lessons on systemic racism
• “Education no Indoctrination”
• No chapters in Illinois yet (Aug 2021); 78 chapters established in 25 states
• https://www.noleftturn.us/

Critical race theory battle invades school boards — with help from conservative groups

• Jeff Porter, superintendent of a wealthy suburban school district in Maine, had no idea that his community was about to become part of a national battle when in the summer of 2020 a father began accusing the district of trying to “indoctrinate” his children by teaching critical race theory�
• To Porter, the issue was straightforward: The district had denounced white supremacy in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police, but did not teach critical race theory, the academic study of racism’s pervasive impact

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-invades-school-boards-help-conservative-groups-n1270794

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Jeff Porter, a school superintendent in suburban Maine, said his district has been "almost held hostage" by a national battle over critical race theory. Ryan David Brown / for NBC News

“I was very naïve at the beginning of the year,” Porter said. “I thought it was a concerned parent who had taken it a little too far. I didn't understand this until recently, but these were tactics from national organizations to discredit the entire district.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20210914/parents-ask-glen-ellyn-officials-to-push-protesting-anti-maskers-away-from-elementary-school

Conclusions and Actions

• Attend your local school board meetings
• Start a petition
• Comments and suggestions for next month’s IISJA meeting on school boards

Thank you for attending