Moms for Liberty Empowers Parents Nationwide with Co-Founder Tiffany Justice

Jerry speaks with Tiffany Justice, parent advocate and co-founder of Moms for Liberty.Show more

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Jerry Ewalt: Welcome to the First Right podcast, a weekly conservative new show brought to you by Restoration of America. I'm Jerry Ewalt, Chief Marketing Officer of Restoration of America, and today we are blessed to talk with Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a courageous network of parents fighting the indoctrination of our children in schools across America. We call them courageous because they are enduring a torrent of attacks from liberal media and the education establishment, but they're absorbing these attacks for the sake of their children and our future. Tiffany, it is a great honor to have you on the show today. As a, as a father of four school age kids, I applaud your effort and your organization's effort. So if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and how Moms for Liberty started.

Tiffany Justice: Sure. I'm a mama of four. My kids are 17, 14, 12, and 10, and I was involved in my kids' education. I unpacked a lot of backpacks, and then I decided to run for, for after doing some advocacy for my children's school, and I won. And so then I served for four years in elected office on a school board here in Indian, Florida where I'm from. And that was a really interesting experience because when you have children in the system and now you get to see behind of them, you get a really interesting perspective. You have a very interesting perspective about why decisions are made and sometimes not made. And we felt like every barica needed to know exactly how the system was working. And I think Covid kind of gave them a glimpse behind the education curtain, and it was enough of a glimpse that they realized it was really messy back there, and we needed to get more involved. And so that's why Mom's Liberty was started. Tina Deskovic was a school board member as well, and we didn't even really know each other, honestly. We came together during Covid and really felt like, Gosh, we have all these parents that are springing up that wanna get involved, that wanna make a difference. We believe that key to reclaiming public education is involving parents. We have worked to do

Jerry Ewalt: Ab Absolutely agree. Right. It's amazing how much of that power seems to have transferred when we weren't paying attention, if you will. And I love how you're fighting to get that back. And so let me ask you, give, tell me some of the core principles of Moms for Liberty.

Tiffany Justice: So our mission is to unit, educate and empower parents to defend and protect their parental rights at all levels of government. And we do that in many different ways. If you go to our website, you can see we have six different ways that we fight. And, and doing that looks different sometimes in each individual place. You know, showed us that different, had different rules and different elected officials had different authority that they held. And it was really important to hold people to their authority. If they had decision making power, they were the ones that should be making the decisions. And unfortunately, all too often during Covid, we saw elected officials or representatives abdicating their authority to bureaucrats. So never again will the American people let that happen. America's very unique, We have representative government at that most local level of school board, and we need to make sure that we are getting good people elected to school boards so that we can direct the policies and the procedures of the districts to ensure that they align with what the parents and the children need and want.

Jerry Ewalt: Amen. I couldn't agree with you more on that. And I, I know there's been what we call this big awakening, this mass awakening across the country as we were kind of falling asleep at the wheel and realizing that we were giving away a lot of this power back to the school board. And, and it's, it's really, it's the parents' right to, to parents and make sure that the education of their children is in their hands, not the school's hands. So I know that was a, that was a big learning for me as well, going through the process. And you know, I, I reflect a lot on this, right? So if you look at America today, you got two thirds of families today are there are double income families, meaning that both parents have to work, right? So they're busy, they got a lot going on, and it's stressful and, and you assume wrongly so that their kids are being taught properly in school. So I have a series of questions for you that are designed to kind of get into the heart of the problem, right? So the first one that came up, at least for my, my own experience was diversity, inclusion and equity. So when I think of those three words, it, it sounds like a good thing. And, and no alarms would go off for any normal parent, especially a busy parent working all the time. But tell us a little bit more about what diversity, inclusion and equity actually is.

Tiffany Justice: So anytime you hear diversity, equity, and inclusion, that should be a little bell for the Marxist or at work. And unfortunately, they like to change the definition and the meanings of words. And so I served as a school, remember as I said, and, and when you sit there as a school board member and they say, Well, don't you like diversity? Don't you want every child to be included? Don't you believe that we need to give children what they need to be successful in school? There's

Jerry Ewalt: Only one answer to that. Yeah, exactly. Right.

Tiffany Justice: Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Right. Yeah, of course I do. Right. But the truth of the matter is, is that it's a trick. It's not really about including every voice or making sure that everyone feels safe and valued. It's about centering the perspectives of the adults really in, in the schools. And, and so what we've really seen is American education becoming a jobs program. And it didn't happen overnight. And I think that's something that we really, as conservatives need to be aware of and think about conservatives in general, kind of seated the ground of public education. There was a lot of focus on school choice, and I love school choice. I believe that all parents have that fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their child, and that includes the child's education. But Right. Parental rights are important. Parents are important in making decisions. They need to make informed decision.
We need to give parents real true, honest information. So they're making the best decisions for their children. And what we saw, unfortunately, was the fact that American education wanted parents to stop asking questions. And so school choice is one of the ways that I think we can reform public education and that hinges on an informed parent making good decisions for their child. But we also need to reclaim public education in this country because a majority of children do and probably always will attend public education. Absolutely. And, and attend public schools, which are government schools. And so what has happened is that there is a man named Pari, and I won't get too deep into the weeds, but if you wanna learn more about this, I really suggest James Lindsay has a podcast, if you haven't heard of James Lindsay, look him up. He has a podcast called New Discourse, where he talks about the Marx Ation of Education. He talks about race Marxism, which is critical race theory and a lot of these different things, Right. And where they got this starch, and unfortunately, American education has become very focused on helping children and making children politically literate instead of functionally literate. And that diversity, equity, inclusion Yes. Piece is, is a big part of that.

Jerry Ewalt: So it's, it's ama parents wouldn't realize that when they hear those words, diversity, inclusion, and equity, it's has a deep root in Marxist ideology, is what you're telling me.

Tiffany Justice: It does. It does. And and for example, I would say when I served on, this is kind of a a, we're jumping ahead a little bit, but I'll use an example. There was a child that considered themselves to be transgender when I was on the school board, and we made accommodations for that child to have a separate bathroom to use, Right. And, and for that child that worked and it, and, but, but what, what the, the diversity, equity, inclusion folks would say would be it's not enough to give a bathroom a separate bathroom to that child, because that's separating them. What you need to do is center their experience. So the way to make them feel included and to have diversity is for them to be able to use the bathroom of the opposite sex because they want to, because that's what they want to do. That's how they identify. And so that would be a twisting of diversity, equity, and inclusion that I think most American parents, sports teams are another one of that, you know, these are pressing issues on the forefront of our country and, and really a, a place where you can see diversity, equity, and inclusion being used in nefarious ways that are, are, are not what American parents want for their children. Yeah,

Jerry Ewalt: No, I, I, I agree. And, and they don't stop with diversity, inclusion and equity. It's dei, they have a new one, it's called sel, Right? Which is social and and emotional learning. Is that correct? What's that one?

Tiffany Justice: Yeah. So social emotional learning is very interesting. It's happening everywhere. I would actually say that social emotional learning is happening in places across the country where maybe diversity, equity and inclusion hasn't been as much of an issue yet, but it's coming. Don't worry if it's not, if this isn't happening in a school district near you, I promise you it is going to be happening any minute. So important to pay attention. But social emotional learning is a part of most children's educational experience in public education, and it's really a way for the educators to manage the cognitive dissonance of the children as they're being indoctrinated. So I can kind of explain that a little bit if you'd like.

Jerry Ewalt: Oh, I, yes, please do.

Tiffany Justice: Okay. Yeah. So a lot of times children are being presented with things that are meant to destabilize them or to drive a wedge between the parent and the child. And so when the children are, are being exposed to these things, like the color of your skin makes you a pressure and you're responsible for everyone else's and or lack of achievement, or when they're being told that the age, age of five, that, you know, maybe that sex that you were assigned as in school isn't your real sex. Maybe your parents were wrong. Maybe you're a boy, even though you have, you know, girl body parts. Maybe you, you could be a tree today. Or you could be non-binary and not have any gender, you know, not have any biological sex or, and, and so the kids are with all of these things that, you know, they naturally are like, Wait, what? That doesn't, that's not what my parents said, or that's not, that seems funny. There's a video where it shows children being shown a color that's a shape, and then being asked to sh to, to call it a different shape. And you can see the children struggling with that because in their mind, their brain is telling them what the shape is, but the teacher's giving them a different instruction. So it's this cognitive dissonance, this, you're,

Jerry Ewalt: You're getting at something really important, Tiffany. So this starts early, this starts early. And they're taught about subjective truth, right? Your truth is different than this person's truth. Blue is not blue, black is not black, it doesn't matter. And you're confusing these kids. And, and it's starting at a very early age.

Tiffany Justice: And so social emotional learning is meant to help to manage that. So I see it, it could bring, it catches in on the children's inherent empathy in the classroom. And so it is programming really. There's center page handbook written about social emotional learning in the way that it should be used in schools. And it truly is programming. It's giving children, telling children really how they should feel about things and how they should react to them if they want to be a good person. It's

Jerry Ewalt: Not only confusing them, right? It's not only confusing them, but it's rewarding them for their behaviors too. So as they go in that direction, they're actually rewarded for that. So it's reinforcing this sel kind of concept.

Tiffany Justice: Absolutely. Yeah. And the biggest concern that I think American parents need to be very aware of right now, or the surveys and the questionnaires that are being given in school, social emotional learning is tough because there are no metrics. You can't really tell is it working? Is it not working? Is it having the outcome? What social emotional learning experts would like to tell you is that this is like, what should they call it? The, you know, well, this is what the experts say, of course. And they have, you know, evidence based, they wanna call it evidence based. But if you really dig below what that says and that surface, it's really their own data that they use to show the evidence and the data is by the same people that are selling the programs. Yeah. And they collect this data by giving your children questionnaires and surveys.
So if there's one thing American parents can do right now, they can write to your child's principal, write to their child's principal and tell them no surveys. Yeah. No more surveys. Do not ask my child about their mental health and wellbeing, whether they feel safe and valued at school. Sometimes these surveys delve into some very sensitive areas about sexual activity, about the parents political activity or, or parents that, whether the parents have any mental health issues or guns at home, or whether there's any type of, Yeah. And so it's very interesting the way that these surveys are being given. And, and one of the things that has been brought up time and time again is this sel social emotional learning. Yes. To esg, environmental social governance scores. This pipeline that we're seeing where a social credit score is being built for children, That's right. In elementary, starting in elementary school where they have a number and your children will be given surveys, they will answer those surveys, those that information is banked and kept on them.
And then the teachers also fill out surveys about your child and their observations about your child. That's also banked. And right now in American schools, public schools, we have college and career readiness being redefined, the American School Counselors Association helping to redefine what does college and career readiness look like, and social emotional learning, that emotional quotient part of it. That the way they feel your children are engaging with the world and whether or not it's aligned with their social justice principles is going to be a real metric as to whether or not your child is considered successful.

Jerry Ewalt: Well, well this is, this is big data, right? So you're telling me right now is, is they're collecting data on our kids through school. We know the same thing is happening at the doctor's office, Right. There's a lot of times where they wanna pull the kid to the side, ask these same questions, upload that data, and then think about how often the kids are on their phone. Right. What are they looking at? What, what apps are they doing? They're being tracked, is what you're telling me. And they have a whole file on them of what they believe, and then not only that, what their parents do, Right. As as a result.

Tiffany Justice: Absolutely. And, and the bottom line is, I think there are people who would like to be in control of this country or may be in control right now, to be honest with you, who very much realize that they want our kids and they need our kids do, and they just want us out of the way. And they're doing everything they can in these schools to drive a wedge between the parent and the child. And I can't think of anything more than saying to a kindergartner that your parents might be wrong about something that seems very basic and fundamental to them. Well,

Jerry Ewalt: This is Marxist ideology again, Right? They want your kids. They absolutely do. And we learned that 2021 when Covid hit, that was the, when the awakening started. So we gotta, we gotta bat all ahead of us. And, and again, there's a, there's a lot to work to do, but I'm glad you're bringing this stuff up and exposing it so that everyone can get an understanding of what's actually happening in the schools. Cuz I could tell you one of the things is I go around telling parents and other people about what our kids are being exposed to. There's this, there's this feeling like, I'm not really sure. Is that true? Cuz even, again, you hear social emotional learning, you hear diversity, inclusion and equity. You hear these great words that don't seem very threatening and they don't seem Marxist like so

Tiffany Justice: Well, yeah. I mean, and, and the schools are gonna tell you that you're crazy. Right? And then you're gonna have mainstream media and, and the Biden White House and the Department of Justice and Merrick Garland call you a domestic terrorist. Yes. It's, how dare you question what your children are being taught in school. Right. And how dare you come in front of an elected body and not just be all rainbows and butterflies telling them what a wonderful job they're doing. I think it's important that we recognize that American public education is failing. And I don't say that lightly, and I don't take joy in saying it, but I just think about, you know, I'm a business person. I, I was raised by business people. I was never involved in politics or government in any capacity. But when we look at the outcomes that you have out of public schools, and I'm not saying the public, that schools are a business, but there are certain facets of public education and certain facets of the way that it runs that could be run more efficiently and effectively and should be.
Absolutely. To be honest. But the outcome piece, the fact that two thirds of American children are not reading on grade level, that are not reading proficiently, what business leader would get to keep their job if, if if two thirds of of your products failed, Right? Or two thirds of your customers were unhappy with the service, would you get more money? Would would people want to invest with you? Right. And and so in American public education though, that's what's happening. You know, we have a failure. The teachers unions, I like to call them the K12 cartel because that's what they are. That's right. Are milking the, the government and taxpayers for more and more money because they say if they just had more money, they could do the job at hand. And that's baloney. Moms for Liberty is saying maybe if you focused on actually doing the job that American parents want, giving children practical skills, teaching our children to be functionally literate instead of politically literate, then perhaps we would be a little bit more interested in working with you. But since you seem to care about adults Right. More than kids, and American education has become really, I think, a jobs right now. I think that's what it is. You know, public education, it's time to take the wheel. And that's what they're doing all over the country. That's

Jerry Ewalt: Right. Yeah. And it actually gets a little worse. It gets a little worse after that. Because what we're learning is these types of programs that we just talked about, diversity, inclusion, equity, social emotional learning, going into critical race theory, gender, some of the, the gender indoctrination, the social justice. You have to carve out time in the school day to do that. There's only so many hours a day of instruction time that a teacher has. So you have like your traditional English literature, math, science, social studies that has to kind of get squeezed and take a little bit of a backseat to some of these initiatives. So not only are your kids learning these, these Marxist ideologies that they're being pushed to do that, but they're learning less and less of the core curriculum that you and I went through as kids.

Tiffany Justice: That's true. But I think it's also important to recognize is actually a little bit more, it's a little bit worse than that. It's a little bit more devious because what they're doing is they're saying they're teaching English language arts, but they're really teaching Marxist philosophy. And so in, in some places where we have done curriculum review and Williamson County, Tennessee pops into my mind, they spent, I think it was a thousand hours, 30 different parents went over the curriculum that was called Written Wisdom. And they went through and, and looked at curriculum and what was happening with it. There was a, a second grade nine week module, that's how the curriculum is broken down called Civil for Around Civil Rights in, when you looked at the teachers manual, it wasn't the books that were being read. So the moms had questions about the books. If you've ever heard about Moms for Liberty having concerns or questions about Ruby Bridges goes to school, this wonderful book that Ruby Bridges wrote about her experience going to school and what that was like for her.
But how far we have come from that moment, if you look at the way the teacher's manual says to teach that book it, it's meant to keep the kids back in the sixties. There's no story about where we are now in America and how much progress we have made it. It's all about making children feel ashamed to be who they are, about dividing children based on immutable characteristics and, and really about teaching kids that America's a bad country that needs to be torn down, broken down, and rebuilt because it has no redemptive qualities that we have an original incentive of slavery that can never be, we can never move past. And that is what's being taught in American public schools right now. If anybody thinks we beat ct, they'd be wrong. Yeah. It is there, it is active, It is in American, American public schools and it's very, and the bottom line is, you know, adults keep racism alive. Kids don't, Kids are, are intuitively kind to each other and they don't judge each other based on race or religion. And, and we need to get out of the way and, and let the kids be kids again.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. Tiffany. So look, hope is not lost. Right. So Moms for Liberty has done some great work. Can you share some of these successes? Cuz I, I want people to know that people like your organizations and there's others out there, a lot of people are standing up and doing something about this. So let us, tell me some of the successes that you guys have been having.

Tiffany Justice: Yeah, so American parents saw a window into their children's education during Covid and they were very concerned. And then they came and they spoke at school board meetings. And what they saw and what they had was school board members who weren't really that interested in hearing what parents had to say. And I think that was the breaking point. It was the parents were concerned about what they were seeing or not seeing. And then when they ask questions, they were told to be quiet and we're not gonna be quiet. These are our children and we do not co-parent with the government. So we started Moms for Liberty, we now have 240 some odd chapters in 42 states. That's right. With over a hundred thousand active members. And these are women and men, grandparents, parents, da uncles, lots of d aunts, lots of different people. Right. So we have not just moms, I just wanna say that you can be a member of Moms for Liberty and you don't have to be a mom, but we do know how important moms are, Right? We do.

Jerry Ewalt: We do.

Tiffany Justice: And, and so these parents are actively getting involved. So in each, it works set up by county and we, there are a little over 3000 counties in the country. And so we hope to have a chapter in every single county. And in each individual chapter you have a chair, a vice chair, a secretary, and a treasurer. And they work together to keep the community and their membership abreast of what's going on, what threats there are to parental rights and what's going on in these schools, these government schools that we for far too long, as you said, have been ignoring. So they look at the school district budget, they look at the school board agenda, they look at the different decisions being made in their community, and they try to make sure that parental rights are being respected and protected at every level.

Jerry Ewalt: I, again, this is so encouraging, right? When you think about 2021, you started in 2021 and a year later, I mean, you're all over the country, it's exploding and you're having success and we know you're having success because you're being attacked relentlessly and you know you're having success when that happens. Share a little bit about some of the, the attacks that you've been under and what's been going on.

Tiffany Justice: Oh, it's been crazy. Yeah. I mean, I don't even know where to start. I, I, you know, I'm smiling because I'm trying to, to to remember that we are joyful warriors and we're gonna fight like hell. That's, that's right. To protect this country. And because it's a privilege to fight for America. There are people that have given their lives for this country and, and our kids are watching us at Moms for Liberty. And we know that. And we want them to remember us being happy and joyful in this fight for the future of our country. And we very much know, by the way, we're a parent group. We make the, we're happy to make the cupcakes, but we very much know that we're fighting for the survival of America. So yeah,

Jerry Ewalt: It's our future. The children are our future and they're being attacked. That's, that's the one thing that I tell people so often with all the things that I get to witness and observe in my current role. I look back and I, I point to the number one thing that we're at risk is the children. Because they're being taught something completely different than what you and I believe in. We've gotta reverse that right now. So I love that you said that.

Tiffany Justice: Yeah. The American parents shouldn't be worried that every time they send their child to school, that the teaching in the school is antithetical to the teaching in the home. And on some of these areas where we are so divided, you know, I think it's time for us to recognize that we need to redraw that boundary between school and home. You know, we, there are our worldviews being imposed upon our children at school that do not align with the worldviews of parents. And when I say worldview, you can look at that as religion in many ways. And, and so this Marxist, we, it's really a theology. It's, it's a religion. Yes. And it is being imposed in the schools. And I think we're only, you know, hopefully we're on a path to there being some litigation around this. I think eventually this probably makes it to the Supreme Court.
This woke ideology in Marxism that's being pushed in American public schools is against the law and it needs to stop. So That's right. But, but our moms and dads are doing all kinds of, of things. So school board elections, super important, really important to support school board members. Our chapters are vetting in endorsing candidates around the country. We just had primaries in Florida. We supported 65 candidates, 43 of those candidates. One. Yep. With 14 going on to the general for a runoff. So it's exciting and we're doing that all over the country. Yep. And so this is the start. The start is getting involved locally at the most direct level where you can impact change regarding your child's education. But who knows where we go from here? What does America look like in four years with an entirely new political class involved? Right. People that love their country, love their family, never thought they would ever get involved in politics or government, but all of a sudden recognize that they need to. And I think this is just the start of something really beautiful happening in America. A another, a new revolution. And it's apparent revolution. We're gonna take our country back.

Jerry Ewalt: It, you're, you're right on with that is they the it's coming and you can see people awakening and, and seeing what's going on and, and standing up. So I, I, I couldn't agree with you more, Tiffany. How do people get involved with Moms for Liberty?

Tiffany Justice: So we would love if you people wanna join chapters or start chapters. That's an important part of the work that we do, is unifying people and creating a sense of comradery in this work. Sometimes it can feel very lonely, but I promise you, you are not alone. If you are concerned about the future of our country, go to moms liberty.org. There's a big map there. You can click on the state you live in and you'll be able to see what chapters we have in your state. You can click to start a chapter or you can click to join one that exists. If you click to start a chapter, you'll begin a process where you'll go through some interviews and things, and we'll help you to get a chapter started in your area. And I promise it's really remarkable when you stand up and you hold that torch and you ask others to join human, you start making, you know, positive family first decisions in your community. It, it's really a wonderful thing.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. Well, well, Tiffany, this has been really informative and not only informative, but but inspiring cuz there, there people need to know that there is hope out there. We are making a difference and things are changing, but we need more and more people involved. And I, I think you're doing that in, in your whole organization. So we want to thank you for joining the show today.

Tiffany Justice: Thank you. Just one last thing. If you wanna sign the parent pledge, go to moms for liberty.org/pledge. We have a pledge there for candidates and elected officials. If, if you wanna show the people in your community where you stand on this issue of fundamental parental rights, take that pledge and make sure everyone in your community knows that you took it. So there's no question that you stand for. Parents and families

Jerry Ewalt: Will do. Yeah. Thanks for that last bit of information. We'll definitely be pushing that out and making sure people sign that. So thank you. Thank you. All right, well that's our show for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting conservative media. Don't ever forget that by working together and staying diligent, we conservatives can bring our country back to true greatness. Until next week, let's all keep praying that God will continue to bless America

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