The 2024 presidential race has been dominating mainstream U.S. news coverage for months, but many Virginia voters have their eyes set on this year’s November 7 election. One ballot item in particular has recently gained significant attention: county school boards. 

As NPR’s Manuela López Restrepo stated this spring, America has seen “a rising trend of parents and politicians pushing for censorship on material available to students in public schools and public libraries.” In Virginia, this effort has been led by the conservative organization Moms for Liberty. Founded in 2021 by Florida residents Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich following Covid-19 mask mandates and school shutdowns, the group, which now boasts over 120,000 members in 45 states, “is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” 

With eleven chapters in Virginia, Moms for Liberty aims to be a “force” for conservative parents in this year’s local and state elections. If last year’s elections are any indication, the group may very well be successful; in 2022, more than half of the 500 school board candidates it endorsed across the country won.

At a March meeting of the Prince William chapter, members heard from local candidates and discussed getting the vote out in local races, ending “handouts to unions,” concerns about critical race theory, social-emotional instruction, and restorative justice, and, perhaps most notably, challenging what books should be allowed in local school libraries. According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, the number of challenges to unique titles jumped nearly 40% from 2021 to 2022. Book banning is not a new phenomenon, but the number of bans and strategies used are new. Until recently, most book removals occurred quietly after a parent raised concerns with a teacher or librarian. Now, due to social media, increasing political polarization, and organized efforts by groups like Moms for Liberty, specific books (often centering racial inequality or LGBTQIA+ issues) have been targeted around the country.

Despite its vision of “Americans empowered and thriving in a culture of Liberty,” Moms for Liberty has looked to impose numerous restrictions. One has to wonder whose liberty is being protected when school curricula and library books featuring diverse main characters are scrutinized by parents, when speakers with anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ+ views are praised, and when vital relationships between teachers and families are tainted with distrust and opposition. 

Why can’t “liberty” in schools also look like children having the freedom to read a range of texts that do not conform to singular narratives? Or teachers having the autonomy to teach the curriculum agreed upon by their administrators and colleagues? Who gets to decide what the American ideal of liberty means? 

Liberty is broadly defined as “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.” Moms for Liberty and its supporters see local and state governments as infringing on their children’s ability to live freely. However, one could argue the pro-liberty group does exactly the opposite of its mission by restricting the liberty of students, teachers, and many parents. With such a large member base and significant influence in school board elections, Moms for Liberty now has notable authority -- and it has used this power to remove books and curriculum dealing with social issues its members believe are political. 

This is not to say parental involvement in schools is bad. In fact, the Brookings Institution found that in school communities with trusting relationships among adults -- parents or caregivers, teachers, and school leaders -- students do much better academically, socially, and emotionally. But these relationships should be built individually rather than in political groups, and on the foundations of respect, integrity, and care, not by using hostility to undermine one another’s goals. 

When parents send their children to school, it is under the assumption that they will be educated and cared for. Conservative parents involved with groups like Moms for Liberty are suddenly and loudly concerned about the age-appropriateness of material and political values being instilled in children at school. Yet while curricula are constantly updated to fit the current times, schooling has not changed drastically in recent years, certainly not at a rate proportional to the growth of Moms for Liberty. Like book bans themselves, these concerns have spread widely due to an increasingly digitally connected country. Many parents are fighting over books they have never read or terms that have never been spoken in their children’s classrooms. 

Well-meaning families can unintentionally fuel the fire that has been created in public education by supporting a misconstrued idea of liberty under the guise of loving mothers. From its actions, it is clear Moms for Liberty inherently values the liberty of conservative parents over everyone else’s. Through open and honest dialogue and trust between parents and educators, it is possible to work cooperatively toward true liberty for all parties involved without eliminating diversity and creating division.