RALEIGH — One of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, a group formed in Florida and has gone national with several chapters in North Carolina, walked the halls of the General Assembly last week to push for school choice and to reaffirm parents’ primary role in the education of their children.
Tina Descovich, who served on her local school board from 2016-2020, talked to North State Journal about the group’s founding and how they came to the forefront of the education debate.
“We launched Moms for Liberty on January 1, 2021 in Florida. My co-founder, Tiffany and I are both former school board members from Florida. We were just going to build in Florida,” Descovich said. “Two weeks after we launched, a gal called from New York and she wanted to start a chapter. I called Tiffany and she’s like, ‘Tina, these moms need our help.’ They saw what was going on in 2020 with school boards and parents really not knowing how to advocate.”
Descovich said that for most parents until that point, their main involvement in public schools was as classroom volunteers and teacher gifts.
“Parents historically have not really been involved at the policy level. All of a sudden they were upset about how the decisions were being made, and they just didn’t know how to advocate. We just wanted to help parents, give them the information and the tools that they needed just be effective and help them navigate the system so that they’re not just screaming into the wind,” she said.
In North Carolina there are currently 18 chapters and they group held a breakfast with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson before the legislative day began.
She added that many of the topics garnering attention in North Carolina she has also seen in Florida: school choice expansion and parents’ bill of rights legislation. She added that So the, the school choice bill, I don’t think is on their agenda, but as an organization, we always support a parent’s right, to direct the upbringing of their child, including education. Uh, but I do know the other two, the principal Bill of Rights is a goal nationally, we would like to see one passed in every state. So that is, that’s a huge priority for them.
Descovich also talked about her group’s support from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose announcement for president is imminent.
“Leadership is lacking in this world right now, period, I think everywhere. And so when someone like Gov. DeSantis steps up and actually leads and is bold and brave, does he get everything right all the time? I don’t know. Probably not. But that, that’s part of being a bold leader. What we saw with him during Covid blew us away,” she said.
It was her group’s members that initially got DeSantis’ attention when they would see him at public events and ask questions – and he would respond to them. Descovich noted that most elected leaders don’t do that.
“The world needs brave leaders right now. And that’s not just a brave governor, it’s not just a brave senator. They need brave moms and dads to stand up for children. It’s part of our civic duty to be involved. These are taxpayer funds that are funding our public schools. If you’re a voter and you’re a taxpayer, you need to know what your government is doing. I think bravery is contagious,” she added.
