Education has become a forefront issue among 2024 presidential hopefuls, giving parents newfound power in the primary election. Grassroots organizations like Moms for Liberty (MFL) are actively advocating on behalf of parents across the country to leverage their influence and drive more parental involvement in public education.
Tiffany Justice co-founded MFL with Tina Descovich in January 2021, in response to the concerns they had as school board members and parents witnessing the state of education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"During COVID, moms and dads all over the country were very concerned about what they were seeing happening in their own communities," Justice told Fox News Digital. "They saw policies that were really hurting their children… and they had to take a step back and say, ‘How do we have so many bad policies?’ and what they realized was that a lot of the politicians they had elected were responsible for these policies."
MFL only endorses in school board races to keep the focus on location elections that have typically been dominated by teachers unions, but because the organization has members all over the country it has developed influence among many GOP 2024 presidential hopefuls.
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"That's been an area that's been neglected by many people across the country," she said. "Certainly parents didn't realize how important the role of school board member was in their community, but they certainly know now and so that's where we endorse candidates."
"We're not a top-down organization who's going to give them an endorsement, and then they're [a presidential candidate] not going to have to work for the vote," Justice said. "It's going to take a lot of conversations. American parents are asking tough questions because they deserve answers."
After establishing the first two chapters, Justice told Fox News Digital that the organization spread like wildfire all over the country to now include 285 chapters in 44 states with over 120,000 members working to unify, educate and empower parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.
Moms who are part of a MFL chapters across the country meet once a month to discuss the agenda of their school board and review different legislative bills and initiatives that are being presented by elected officials in their state, but they are also paying attention to national politics, Justice explained.
"They are paying attention to this upcoming presidential election, which we know is going to really be the formative and guiding light as we move forward as a country into 2024 and beyond," she said.
In recent months, Justice said MFL chapter members have been invited to events for 2024 GOP presidential candidates, which for ordinary moms, who are working or busy taking care of their children, it's meaningful to get a call from a presidential campaign asking them to meet.
"I think that a lot of presidential candidates that are running in the Republican primary right now want to hear from parents," she said. "They want parents to know that they hear them, that they know they're concerned about the future of America … that they're concerned that their children are not receiving a good, high quality education in school, but instead are being indoctrinated to believe things about our country that aren't true and to divide children based on race, religion and political party."
Justice said it has "been awesome to see different people throw their hat in the ring running for president," who have met with MFL members, but she said the situation hasn't been the same among Democratic candidates.
"There haven't been any events to be able to attend from any other candidates besides GOP candidates," she said. "It seems since Joe Biden, our president, has announced his run for a second term, [but] he has not done any campaigning or speaking to the public about that run."
She said MFL has invited President Biden to its annual summit in Philadelphia at the end of the month, but they have not received a response from him, leaving her to wonder where Democrats stand on the issue of parental rights, which she doesn't see as a partisan issue.
"Parents are the number one driver of student success when it comes to school, and parents are the best experts for their own child," she added. "Love is an expertise and parents are able to help their child to be successful in life in a way that no one else possibly can."
Justice believes MFL will have a major impact on the upcoming presidential elections by making sure that education and parental rights are at the forefront of every conversation about our country and the future of America.
"So many times we've sat and watched presidential debates where education really wasn't discussed, where parental rights really weren't discussed, where the importance of safeguarding the family wasn't discussed and that's going to be different this year," she said. "I think that American moms and dads, Moms for Liberty members, are going to make sure that it's different."
Many moms were part of an untapped voter market that didn't go to the polls pre-pandemic, who now wield voting power in the upcoming presidential primaries.
"We saw that 39% of our moms had never voted in a primary before," she said. "That's a game changer. You have a completely new group of people who have not been actively involved in the primary races."
Justice said it is her hope that every American parent get involved in the 2024 presidential election, which she argued is "probably the most important election of our lifetimes."
"Every parent should stand up and speak out and have their voice heard as to what they feel is best for their child and the future of the country," she said. "That's what makes America so important and so special."
"American parents were being pushed out of public education, and we see a trend for the federal government to continue to try to be more and more involved and push out the American parent," she added. "We're not going to let that happen. These are our children, we will partner with our children's schools, but our parental rights do not stop at the classroom door, and we do not co-parent with the government."
Because she and Descovich both served on local school boards, Justice said her experience gave her a peak behind the "education curtain" to really see "how the education system in America is being used to radically transform our country." She said national education statistics, like the Nation's Report Card (NAEP), show "rampant educational failure" among students in the U.S.
"The data doesn't lie," she said. "We spend $750 billion plus on education. Those outcomes in any other business situation would not be acceptable. If you were the CEO of a company and those were the returns that you were getting, you'd be fired. And yet, in American public education, we continue to allow the people that have been in control of public education to continue to control it, enough."
She said the "failure of the American education system is impacting every single American" regardless of race, religion or political party.
"When we see the President of the United States get up and tell American parents that they're not our own children, but everyone's children, American parents have a problem with that," she added. "That sounds a lot like communism to us, and we are not a communist country… so moms and dads are stepping up."