Localized social media groups on Facebook and other platforms can be a popular starting point for stirring outrage over books or to push for “harmful” policies, according to Ronna Dewey, the Pennsylvania chapter head of Red, Wine & Blue, a kind of national counter group to the conservative Moms For Liberty.

“Maybe they heard something from a friend in another school district or saw something online and they start saying things like, ‘Oh, do we have these books in our school? We need to start looking,’” Dewey said.

Continue Reading at phillyburbs 

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That’s the democratic way. The wrong answer to right-wing pressure groups is to tell them to butt out of school politics, which is what Terry McAuliffe said during his failed gubernatorial bid in Virginia. The correct answer — indeed, the only answer — is for other citizens to butt in.

We don’t live in China, which is now squashing history in Hong Kong schools. Nor do we live in Russia, where textbooks have purged references to Kyiv and Ukraine. We live in a democracy. The big question is whether we will raise our voices loudly enough to defend it.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer

The post School censorship is not democratic. Speaking up is the solution. appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

Read more at US News

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“We may just be moms, but come November, you’ll be just a former governor.”

Suburbs across Florida, October 19, 2022 – Today, Red Wine & Blue released “Just Moms,” a new ad featuring Florida moms fighting back against Ron DeSantis’ education extremism. The ad, which has a six-figure ad buy behind it, will run across streaming services and online video most consumed by suburban women.

DeSantis’s Board of Education–which includes at least one appointee who has supported the Capitol insurrection, QAnon, and the Proud Boys–met today to put rules into Florida education code that will revoke teacher certificates for violations of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, implement a harmful bathroom policy, and shut down teachers’ classroom libraries until they review all of their books.

Mainstream parents don’t want DeSantis’s extreme agenda:

• Seventy-five percent of Americans believe state laws banning books or making it illegal to talk about LGBTQ or race issues are about politics and not in the best interest of children, according to an August Ipsos poll.
• When Florida parents are offered school library restrictions, they reject them. In all but one Florida county that offered them, less than 1% of students have been restricted by their parents.

In the “Just Moms” ad, nine moms from Florida push back against DeSantis’ support of book bans, suing teachers, and attacking the rights of LGBTQ kids and others. The ad ends with moms saying to DeSantis, “We may just be moms. But come November, you’ll just be a former Governor.”

“Mainstream moms do not want book bans or schools where teachers do not feel safe teaching, and they definitely don’t want politicians using their kids to score political points,” said Katie Paris, Founder of Red Wine & Blue. “Florida moms will not be silent – and that should worry Ron DeSantis.”

The text of the ad reads as follows:

“We might just be moms, but we take that role seriously. So when politicians use our kids as pawns in their extremist agenda, we stand up and fight back. Book banning – forget it. Our kids should learn the truth. Suing teachers – we trust teachers. And scoring cheap political points by picking on kids who just want to fit in. You don’t deserve to hold public office. We may just be moms, but come November, you’ll be just a former governor.”

From restricting what books schools can keep in their libraries or use for instruction, to signing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, to requiring armed law enforcement officers to be stationed at every school, to his “Stop Woke” act that sets limits on how issues involving race may be taught, DeSantis has a long track record of extremism.

Red Wine & Blue has been working with women in Florida to train and connect them with a network of nearly half a million suburban women of all political backgrounds – including many who have never been political before – to organize in their communities and address the growing threats of extremism to public education, freedom, and democracy.

The post PRESS RELEASE: On Day Education Board Meets to Enact DeSantis’ Extreme Agenda, FL Moms Release Six-Figure Ad Buy to Stand Up and Fight Back – Especially With Suburban Women appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

My thanks to Dhruvak Mirani for his clear and extensive commentary on the current right-wing attacks on public education (“Don’t get distracted by Dan Cox; Maryland boards of education are under threat from right-wing candidates, too,” Aug. 5).

I’d like to add one important note. The new grassroots organization, Red Wine and Blue, was formed this year to shed light on disinformation fueling book bans, school curricula and other issues that seem to have been hijacked by the right.

Read More. 

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“It’s like the latest outrage of the week to basically scare suburban moms — and specifically white suburban moms — so that they will come out and vote for their candidates,” she said.

Read More

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“No matter what party you’re a part of, pandemic parenting was a huge challenge,” Paris said. “When you’re exhausted and frustrated, it is a whole lot easier to point your finger and blame a bogeyman than it is to actually address the challenges in front of us. … Suburban parents don’t like extremism.”

Read more at Los Angles Times

The post Focus on the economy, not ‘critical race theory’ or sex ed: Inside Democrats’ plan to win back parents appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

Suburbs Across America, February 17, 2022 – Katie Paris, founder of Red Wine & Blue, released the following statement in response to the dramatic rise in violent intimidation against school board members, and even their children:

“School officials and their families should never be subject to death threats and harassment. Full stop.

No matter where you stand on specific books or school policies, violence and intimidation are never the answer.

We’re calling on Heritage Action, Manhattan Institute, Goldwater Institute, Independent Women’s Forum, Parents Defending Education, No Left Turn in Education, Moms for Liberty, and others to join us in denouncing death threats, harassment, and intimidation of all school board members and their families.

Even if the people behind these threats are not affiliated with your organizations, we should all be able to join together in sending a clear message against violence. Our words matter.

Red Wine & Blue’s community of 300k women are committed to speaking out against the rise of book bans in school districts across the country and addressing the crises our families face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Threats of violence and harassment only put more stress on families. No matter where we stand, death threats and intimidation have no place in these conversations.”

According to Reuters investigative piece published this week:

• Across 15 states, school board members have received over 220 harassing and threatening messages.

• School officials or parents in 15 different counties received or witnessed threats they considered serious enough to report to police.

• These threats often come from people out of state with no connection to the districts involved. No arrests have been made.

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