BEHIND THE MOB:

Since its formation earlier this year, the Virginia-based Parents Defending Education (PDE) has emerged as a leading group targeting school boards. Following the NSBA's September 29 letter, PDE criticized the group for seeking the assistance of the Department of Justice.

"It is shameful that activists are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice against parents,"  PDE President Nicole Neily said. "This is a coordinated attempt to intimidate dissenting voices in the debates surrounding America's underperforming K-12 education - and it will not succeed. We will not be silenced." 

PDE's activities include encouraging parents to create social media pages to "document examples of woke indoctrination" and waging lawsuits against "woke" curricula. 

PDE also maintains an "IndoctriNation Map" where it targets schools for reasons including committing to anti-racism, offering teachers support through affinity groups, and acknowledging inequity. 

"Through network and coalition building, investigative reporting, litigation, and engagement on local, state, and national policies, we are fighting indoctrination in the classroom -- and promoting the restoration of a healthy, non-political education for our kids," reads the organization's website. 

PDE purports to be a "national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas." 

But Neily, the group's president, has a long history in right-wing political organizations. Neily is also the founder of Speech First, a right-wing nonprofit group that advocates for "free speech" on campuses. In 2018, the Nation reported that Speech First's board of directors included "a former head of a Koch-backed trust and two conservative attorneys from Koch-funded programs." 

Parents Defending Education's sophisticated operations have raised eyebrows. In June, Maurice Cunningham, a recently retired professor who has been monitoring PDE, pointed out to the Daily Beast that for a group that was only incorporated in January 2021, PDE was suspiciously well-organized:

The next thing you know, this group of moms is hiring a law firm that has represented Donald Trump, has a sophisticated PR approach, has extensive...instructions on how to go about the things they're encouraging people to do. And you have to say to yourself, okay, that takes a lot of money."

Prior to her work with Speech First, Neily worked for other Koch-funded organizations including Franklin News Foundation and the conservative nonprofit, Independent Women's Forum. Neily was also "a "Koch summer fellow for both the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights and the Competitive Enterprise Institute," according to the watchdog group SourceWatch.

PDE senior fellow Elizabeth Schultz is a former Trump official. She appeared on Fox News' America's Newsroom morning show last week criticizing the Fairfax County School Board. "They feel like they are in charge of us, and I think it is responsible for citizens to stand up and speak up about how their taxpayer dollars are spent," Schultz said.

No Left Turn in Education is a prominent conservative group that, according to its website, seeks to "mobilize community participation in school board meetings." The group, which was founded in 2020, says it is combating "radical teachings" in schools "motivated by a political agenda." 

No Left Turn was founded by Elana Yaron Fishbein, who rose to prominence after appearing on prime-time Fox News shows. The group was relatively small until Fishbein appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight, after which the group's Facebook page "shot up from fewer than 200 followers to over 30,000" overnight. 

No Left Turn aims to "combat racial indoctrination in our K thru 12 education system," despite the fact that Critical Race Theory is not taught in K-12 schools in the United States. Her group says the 1619 Project, a project developed by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones examining the consequences of slavery, aims to "overturn our society by sowing divisiveness and hate."

Fishbein and her organization, however, frequently engage in divisive rhetoric. In a social media post, Fishbein wrote, "White students who attend predominantly black inner-city high schools fear for their lives daily, but no one marches in the streets declaring 'White Lives Matter.'" 

No Left Turn, according to Media Matters, has "compared the efforts of public school educators to that of Pol Pot, Vladimir Lenin, and Adolf Hitler." The group has also posted anti-LBGTQ rhetoric, including "telling activists to go 'back to Trans-sylvania'" and stating that accepting LGBTQ children "represents the 'dismantling of the family unit!'"

The group has held rallies to "[s]top Critical Race Theory and Social Justice Indoctrination" in both Georgia and Virginia.

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