Episode 10: Extremism: The Big Picture

When education researcher and parent Jamie Martin first heard NBC’s podcast about the Southlake Families, the group that had taken the majority of the school board in the Carroll School District in Texas, she noticed that their web site looked remarkably like that of Francis Howell Families in her Missouri district. It had the same branding and the same language attacking critical race theory, transgender children, and teachers.

That started her down the path of researching the influence of national organizations on local school board races.

And what she found was that there is a network of well-established groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute that are working with newer groups like Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education to sow distrust in local public schools and undermine support for public education.

In this podcast episode, Jamie talks with host Karin Chenoweth about her research as well as her work with a counter group, Francis Howell Forward, that is working to regain the majority of the school board through its practice of what she calls “bold civility.”

Some of the things mentioned during the episode include:

·       Jamie Martin’s group, Francis Howell Forward.

·       The Francis Howell Families web site. (The Southlake Families website seems to be inactive, but see here for a side-by-side comparison.)

·       NBC’s podcast about the Carroll School District in Southlake Texas.

·       Christopher Rufo’s speech to Hillsdale College where he said that the path to universal school choice is through universal school distrust.

·       An interview with Christopher Rufo where he talks about using critical race theory for political purposes.

·       An article by Benjamin Foster-Welles in The New Yorker about how Christopher Rufo “invented” the conflict over critical race theory.

·       The Texas Observer’s map of organizations backing and funding the effort to take over school boards.

·       Demographics of Francis Howell district, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, is 86 percent White, 4 percent Black, 3 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian/Pacific Islander.

·       James Davidson Hunter’s book, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America