The Daily Signal - Parents in the Driver's Seat: Tiffany Justice on Education Freedom

Episode Date: May 4, 2025

The Daily Signal's Rob Bluey sits down with Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty and leader of The Heritage Foundation's Parental Rights Initiative, to discuss the growing movement of parental involvement in education. Justice shares her personal journey from being a stay-at-home mom to running for school board in 2016, which allowed her to "see behind the education curtain" The founding of Moms for Liberty in January 2021 as a response to parents' frustrations during COVID-19 school closures How unions have historically dominated school board meetings and why parent attendance is crucial for balancing educational priorities Success stories of parents transitioning from local school board activism to state legislative roles How universal school choice initiatives and education savings accounts put educational decisions back in parents' hands Updates on the Heritage's new Parental Rights Initiative and efforts to bring together various organizations across partisan lines How parental rights issues have impacted recent elections, including Glenn Youngkin's gubernatorial victory in Virginia An assessment of the Trump administration's early actions on parental rights, including protecting girls' sports and Education Secretary Linda McMahon Practical advice for concerned parents: get involved locally, run for office, build relationships with teachers, and watch for the upcoming Parental Rights Network The COVID pandemic transformed many previously nonpolitical parents into advocates for education freedom. Listen to learn about the ongoing efforts to codify parental rights protections at local, state, and federal levels. #ParentalRights #EducationFreedom #MomsForLiberty #SchoolChoice #SchoolBoards #ParentalAdvocacy #EducationReform #HeritageFoundation #PublicEducation #DailySignal Sign up for our email newsletters: https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:  Problematic Women: https://www.dailysignal.com/problematic-women⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  The Signal Sitdown: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-signal-sitdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  The Tony Kinnett Cast: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-tony-kinnett-cast Follow The Daily Signal:  X: ⁠⁠https://x.com/DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Rumble: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rumble.com/c/TheDailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  This podcast on parental rights and education freedom is made possible by listeners like you. If you believe in empowering parents and transforming education for future generations, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Daily Signal today. Your support helps us continue bringing these important conversations to families across America. Visit our website: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. We're joined now by Tiffany Justice, who is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, but now working for the Heritage Foundation leading the Parental Rights Initiative. Tiffany, it's great to be with you. I'm so glad to join you. You have been an inspiration for so many parents, my wife and myself included, for taking a leading role and speaking out on behalf of parents, particularly at a time when I think a lot of us were seeing what was transpiring in schools during the COVID period and frankly having a lot of. of parents stepping out into a more public role running for school boards or just being more active with their children's education. I think it would be very helpful for our audience to hear your story and what it was that inspired you to take a more active role.

So I was a stay-at-home mom. My husband and I have four kids. They're now 2017, 15, and 13. But in 2016, we had four kids in public school and I decided to run for school board because I had been volunteering at my kids' school and just really saw that parents weren't weren't being listened to as much as they should be. And I was able to advocate for that school and get some repairs done. And I thought, well, it would be great if I could help other parents to get involved too

and to make a change happen? So I ran for school board and I saw behind the education curtain. And then COVID happened. Yes. And all of America saw behind the education curtain. So I was on school board during COVID up until November of 2020, the end of November. And then we formed Moms for Liberty. that was founded January 1st, 2021,

as an effort to really help parents to be effective advocates. I think parents and citizens in general in the United States thought, well, there are these people that are elected or experts and they're making decisions. And then COVID happened. And we were like, well, they're making really bad decisions. Like, we thought they knew what they were doing, but obviously they don't.

And I think a lot of us are just like, well, you know, I guess now's the time that I stand up. And I become a leader. And so it's really about decentralized leadership. Yes. Yes. As you said. You know, it's very interesting.

When I was starting as a reporter, one of my first assignments, this is in upstate New York, was for a weekly community newspaper. And as the young reporter on staff, it was my job to go to school board meetings. And so I would show up. And usually it was the members of the board, maybe a few of the administrators, and that was it. And I was the only reporter in the room. parents typically didn't show up for a meeting unless they were presenting or doing something. And so to see the transformation, to see so many people not only like you run for school board,

but then show up to meetings and speak out was, I think, really inspirational for so many Americans. So thank you. Oh, you're welcome. You know who else shows up to school board meetings? Unions. They absolutely show up and they wear red and they come in force. And, you know, I saw the power of the unions.

I would, you know, be in conversations. about bargaining or different things or certain times when school boards can meet and close session in Florida, you're allowed to do that. And I would think I would, or I would think I'd know how school board members would handle different votes or situations based on past experience. And the union would come, Rob, and they were so forceful

and intimidating, and there was no one else in the room. And so as a school board member, I'd watch other school board members flip their decision because they'd want to appease the union. And we needed to balance that out. parents needed to come to the school board meetings, they needed to have their voice heard, because, you know, no one was advocating for the kids at that point, and that was very concerning. Yes, absolutely. And we saw so many parents turn out. In some respects, you know, they may not have

been politically active or engaged at all. Do you think what we saw during that COVID period has led to realignment in our politics? And is it sustainable for? the future or do you think that they'll just revert back to maybe the way that things were before? No, I think that there is a generation of American parents. I always joke and say, who knew I was going to make so many new friends in my 40s? I think that, because traditionally, you don't, right? I think that there's a generation of Americans who were not politically active. It wasn't part of our lives. We had thought, like, somebody else runs for office. I'm not a politician, right? And we didn't realize that on top of, you know, running a business or having a family that we needed to include,

being political, being involved in politics, whether that means running for office yourself or running, you know, helping on campaigns or donating to political candidates. But the left has been very good at this for a very long time, right? And so I do think you're seeing a change. What I've seen in my time in Moms for Liberty has been moms and dads and dads stepping up and running for office, running for school board, then running for state house or Senate, right? And so I think that we are building a new bench of, of, of, political candidates across the United States. And I'm very hopeful that in 10 years, we're going to look at Congress and we're going to have a totally new batch of people that have started locally,

which is the most important thing. It is. Yes. Thank you. When you serve in local office, you see your constituents every day. And I can tell the difference between a state house member that has served locally before in some capacity or hasn't. Because when you make decisions on your school board. And then you go to the supermarket the next day and everybody knows you, right? It's a very different experience. So I think you're going to have new elected officials that really understand the importance of staying in touch with the grassroots of hearing from them. And it's not enough to get good people elected, but those good people need a grassroots army to help to support them when they make hard decisions, when they push back against the union.

When you were running Moms for Liberty, were there particular individuals that stand out in your mind who exemplified that or maybe certain initiatives that you created that have led to those transformational changes. Yeah, it's just really been the moms and dads on the ground. They're heroes. You know, we have women that have run for office, as I said, maybe started on school board. There's a woman Amanda Nguessky in Wisconsin that started as vice chair of her chapter and then rose up and became a house member and then runs, I believe, the education committee in the Wisconsin House. So that's pretty incredible. journey and she's doing amazing work, but it's really moms and dads across the board who have

stepped up to have their voices heard and are doing things that they never thought they would do. I'll tell you, at our first summit we had in Tampa, I got into the elevator with a dad and a little girl, and they were there with their, accompanying their, his wife for our Moms for Liberty Summit. He didn't know who I was. And, you know, I said, oh, are you here for the Mom's for Liberty event? or, you know, and he said, oh, yeah, my wife is there. And he said, are you here for it? I said, yeah, I am. I said, I'm the co-founder of Moms for Liberty.

And he just stopped and he looked at me and he said, I just want to thank you because my wife is doing things that she just never even thought that she could do. And I think that's really what it's about. It's just inspiring leadership and saying to people like, stop waiting for somebody else to make the hard decisions, to stand up and be a leader in your community. You can be that leader. What a great story. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for. We've seen so many states expand the opportunities that children have and parents have to send their kids to different schools,

whether it be a public school or whether it be a private school or a public charter school. Where do you see the future of that movement going? And our parents doing everything that they can to like really seize this moment and momentum that we seem to be having in so many different places across the country. Yeah, one of the first times that I got to meet and speak with President Trump, You know, I said to him, sir, we need to put parents back in the driver's seat when it comes to their children's education. And that's certainly what we are seeing happen. You know, school choice was something that I think when I first started hearing about it. I wasn't quite sure about.

It's been a pretty divisive issue, to be honest with you, in the Republican Party. I know there are people that worry. There's a saying, I think Jason Bedrick of Heritage says it with the with the shackles come the shackles. There's a joke, right, that maybe that, you know, if money is coming out of the public school system and going to other ventures, that perhaps some of those regulations will come as well. And I think that's something that we have to be really aware of, and we have to make sure that school choice policy is good policy that stands in the principals.

Again, putting parents in the driver's seat, but also limited government, right, not expanding the role of the government. But the more I have learned about what's happening in the schools, the indoctrination that's happening, the more that it's just really put me in the frame of mind that school choice is the answer, that I trust parents more than I will ever trust the government to make decisions for children. Yes.

And so, yeah, I mean, it is definitely the way forward. I like universal school choice. Absolutely. I like education savings accounts. And I'm hopeful that we're going to see more action by Congress, urged by President Trump, to create more opportunity for parents with children with special needs, to be able to take the money that would normally be spent by the federal government, our taxpayer money, to put it back into the hands of the parents so that they can,

can find real interventions for their children that make a difference. Yeah, it's, it's something that certainly there's been a lot of great legislation that's passed in states, but there are still so many other opportunities. And unfortunately, when this, you know, breaks down into a partisan issue, which it really shouldn't be, because there are plenty of Democrats who send their kids and have the opportunity to. Recori D. Angeloast is a very good job of always saying, like, here's this elected leader who's fighting against school choice for the people in their state, rules for thee, but not for me.

And yet they send their kids to private school. So you're absolutely right. Yes. So you're working on a new initiative at the Heritage Foundation. You recently joined Heritage called the Parental Rights Initiative. What are your hopes and aspirations for what you're going to be able to accomplish? Yeah, you asked me a little bit about the country before. I think one of the things that I've seen is that parental rights being a parent is a really

unifying issue that a lot of people that maybe thought they disagreed about things before COVID or before this past election are realizing, well, wait a second, you know, I'm really worried about failing schools or I'm really worried about the fact that I've been told that these foods are okay for my kids. And yet there are all these ingredients that are banned in other places. And I've been, you know, I've been lied to. I think, you know, COVID vaccine mandates, right, was something that, you know, really brought people together across party lines. And they said, our kids are getting sick from COVID. Why would you make us give them a vaccine that they don't need. And so I'm very excited to bring people together across the country. I think we're in this

moment that we're bringing people together on issues that really transcend partisan politics and partisan divide. And so I want to continue that. You know, President Trump was not just elected by Republicans in America. He was elected by a broad coalition of people. And as he, you know, creates these executive orders, we need to stand up and support him. It's going to take people on the ground watching what's happening in their school districts and other places to say, oh, no, no, you're not supposed to have DEI, and that doesn't mean that you don't just get to change the department name, right? That means that you have to actually eliminate the people that were working there. And so this parental rights initiative is really about, again, putting parents into

the driver's seat and bringing people together grass top leaders and others that normally maybe were competitors to a certain degree for funding and helping them to see how they can work together and to really move our country forward. What's happening in blue states or in blue cities, it's not just happening in one, it's happening in a lot of them. There are a lot of similarities, and there are great strategies that people are using to be able to defeat some of those things, right?

The ballot initiatives that we're seeing in certain states across the country that are very concerning. Prop 1 that was in New York, for example, has a very nice language, right? That people read it, and you think, oh, well, that sounds like a nice thing, But when we went there to New York and we started telling people, no, wait a second,

dig a little deeper. Let's really talk about what this will mean for you and your children in the future of your state. People didn't want to vote for it. And so if we can create more awareness, cut through a lot of the baloney and the fuzzy language and the pretty, you know, the flowery words that the Democrats like to use and really create more awareness on the ground. I think we'll be much more successful. So that's what we hope to do.

That is tremendous. And there's so much to do. You mentioned the New York example. I know just recently Heritage Action has been engaged very much in Colorado with legislation there that would impose, you know, really onerous restrictions on parents when it comes to transgender debate. And so I think that it's all the more reason. So I wanted to ask you this because four years ago, Glenn Yonkin surprised everyone when he won the governorship of Virginia largely because of a parental rights issue. There was the backlash from COVID, but Terry McCalliffe, his Democratic opponent, basically said no, I'm sorry, like parents don't have a seat at the table.

School should control things. Big mistake for him, yeah. How do you see this issue impacting elections? Does it still have the potency? And if not, like, how do we make sure that it does in the future? I think it absolutely has the ability to influence elections. And, you know, you can have great ideas and great policy, but you have to get the right people elected into office in order to be able to have power.

And that's really a very important component of that. So, yeah, I absolutely think that parental rights, the issue of protecting our children and they're innocent, safeguarding kids. You know, we have seen the government use schools to drive a wedge between the parent and the child. It's such a sacred relationship. But our children are being indoctrinated in school. They're oftentimes being taught to question whether their parents were right about something is very simple about what biological sex they are. We've seen kids taught to hate our country, to question religion and God. And so the teaching in the classroom shouldn't be antithetical to the teaching in the home. I think parents have had a very strong reaction to what

they're seeing happen in schools. You know, you talk about Colorado. That's a bill that says that if you're not willing to affirm your child's want of changing their gender, you might lose custody of that child, that that would be considered abusive. And so, you know, Heritage has amazing model policy, like the Defining Abuse Act. That's something that Jay Richards and Laura Hanford have worked on. If people don't know about it, they should go and take a look at it. But it just says that it's not abuse to affirm your child's biological sex. I know that sounds crazy that we shouldn't have to do, but we need to put these types of things, codify them into law. And so, you know, I, I, it's just an incredibly important moment for our country. Yes. There are so many different battles at the state

level. I know you, you've mentioned President Trump a couple of times. Are there things that stand out in your mind over these first 80-some days that he has done that relate to parental rights that you're proud of? Yeah, I've gotten to know President Trump a little bit over the past few years. and I just will say I think he's an incredibly kind and generous man who genuinely loves our country and understands the fact. I mean, well, I say he understands. I think he was shocked, honestly, as many Americans were, to see that the government thought that they knew better for a parent than, for a child, excuse me, than their own parent.

So his actions on protecting girls in sports. I remember I interviewed him in August of last year, and we sat. and we chatted about men competing in women's sports. And he was like, this is crazy. You know, we talked about the Olympics and what had happened there and the boxing ring. You know, he's brought up several times about, you know, weightlifters and the way that some of these records are being smashed. So this is just common sense stuff.

He is the common sense president. He really is. You know, he made a commitment that he was going to abolish the Department of Education. I think Secretary McMahon was a wonderful choice. She's a businesswoman. She doesn't take any baloney. You saw her come out. out when the Democrats were holding that press conference.

She just stood there very politely and waited off to the side and listened to them and then came and spoke. She is not afraid of confrontation and she's a classy lady. And so, you know, he's putting people into positions where he knows he's utilizing their best qualities. He's a good people picker, I like to say. And so I think he's just done a wonderful job, but certainly protecting, engaging on the gender issue.

Yes. You know, I think the gender issue for someone like Jay Richards, you know, he was very focused on that at heritage and then it's kind of been a part of the restoring American wellness initiative that he has. For parents, that gender ideology issue is a base level foundational issue. The fact that you are being asked to have your children lie at school, compelled speech violating their First Amendment rights, and the fact that our children's safety is being put at risk. And that you might lose custody of your child if you're not willing to go along with this lie has been a very concerning and motivating factor for parents. So I'm thrilled that the president has stepped

up the executive orders and the people that he has around him. People like May Mailman and others that have been so influential on this issue are right there by his side helping to make sure that the language is correct and that he's taking every step in order to be effective. Right. And now again, I just say the onus is on us, right? To codify these things into law to make sure that we have relationships with legislators and others. Parents are the lobby, right? We, we, and they need to know that it's up to us to be the watchdogs

and to make this stuff go over the finish line. Okay, so that is great advice. In closing here, do you have any other, based on your experience and working with parents over the years, what are some steps that you would like to see them take? If they're watching this interview right now, what can they do immediately to start making a difference in their community? Stand up, hold the torch of liberty.

If you're thinking something is wrong or something happening in your district is concerned, you're not the only one. Encourage teachers, really have conversations with your kids' teachers. It's the most important thing that relationship between the parent and the teacher and encourage them if they're concerned to stand up and have their voice heard, run for office. I really do believe that we need more people running for office and not just school board, but city council, county commission, you know, and then obviously at the state. level and the federal level but run for office I know it's oftentimes not something that a lot of

people thought was going to be a part of their life you know they didn't they didn't think it was what they were going to do right to be an elected official but I think the time is now for all of us to do that so I'm really excited you know I just want to mention we're going to be starting weekly calls for the parental rights network we're going to call it it'll be leaders from across the country so if people are listening and they want to be a part of that watch for a heritage announcement about that parental rights network launching and then we're going to do a series of of what's best for kids. And we're going to talk about the economy.

We're going to talk about wellness and health. We're going to talk about education. And we're going to talk about family. Sometimes I've seen and I'm concerned about the fact that we don't hold the ideal, right? I understand that there are a lot of different circumstances that families have in the United States. Maybe you don't have two parents at home, right? Those are realities. But it doesn't mean that we don't talk about what is actually best for kids and we don't try to work to accomplish.

those things and help them to happen for every child. So I think it's going to be a real game changer in America. And I'm incredibly thankful that Heritage is trusting me to lead this initiative to help to bring parents together. That is fantastic. Thank you for sharing us, those opportunities. We'll be sure to keep our audience informed as you launch them. It's great to have you as part of the team.

And Tiffany Justice, thank you for everything that you've done, not only to serve as an inspiration for other parents, but to lead us down this path in the future for where we're we need to go and what we need to accomplish. Awesome. Thank you. Subscribe to get the news. The legacy media won't tell you and only the daily signal can bring to you.