Following the November elections, staffers from several dark money anti-public school groups — Moms for Liberty (M4L), Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and Parents Defending Education (PDE) — took to the media to tout the supposed success of far right school board candidates.

One IWF staffer described the results of local and state public education races as a bright spot for Republicans in an overall disappointing midterm, representing a “red undercurrent” where a “red wave” failed to appear.

In reality, right-wing school board candidates backed by such groups did not sweep their races, far from it. In particular, M4L, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that keeps its funders secret from the public, and its state PACs, which endorsed more than 500 school board candidates this year, lost the majority of the races the group endorsed in.

But the infrastructure that M4L and other dark money anti-public education groups have built up will likely only continue to grow in sophistication and resources, trying new and better-funded avenues, like using federal super PACs, to dominate school boards in future elections and wield control over the public schools they seemingly seek to destroy through privatization.

Attempted School Board Takeover Part of Longstanding School Privatization Scheme

The targeting of local school boards is part of a broader decades-long effort by right-wing elites — including right-wing oil heir Charles Koch, former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her husband and Amway heir Dick DeVos, the Walton family (heirs to the Walmart fortune) and Trump insurrectionist candidate devotees Liz and Richard Uihlein — to privatize our educational system. These ultra-wealthy enemies of public education have directed parts of their vast fortunes to advancing right-wing political candidates who will enact radically reactionary policies that suit their world view.

But the infrastructure that M4L and other dark money anti-public education groups have built up will likely only continue to grow in sophistication and resources, trying new and better-funded avenues, like using federal super PACs, to dominate school boards in future elections and wield control over the public schools they seemingly seek to destroy through privatization.

Attempted School Board Takeover Part of Longstanding School Privatization Scheme

The targeting of local school boards is part of a broader decades-long effort by right-wing elites — including right-wing oil heir Charles Koch, former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her husband and Amway heir Dick DeVos, the Walton family (heirs to the Walmart fortune) and Trump insurrectionist candidate devotees Liz and Richard Uihlein — to privatize our educational system. These ultra-wealthy enemies of public education have directed parts of their vast fortunes to advancing right-wing political candidates who will enact radically reactionary policies that suit their world view.

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