We all saw over the past year this
year all the school boards that
began disrupted by protesters,
angry parents,
saying people are going to hell,
that they're anti of everything.
Because of the mask wearing,
because of teaching kids about what
they should learn in school about
our actual history.
There's more to it than just that,
because there's also an effort to
replace many of these school board
members with right wingers that
believe in these types of things
like anti-vax, anti-masking,
don't teach about our history.
But it even goes even deeper
than that, because there's
a concerted effort behind that.
So in 2021,
there was least 80 efforts to
recall 207 school board members,
and that's more than double
any previous record for that.
So there's a huge influx on that.
The last twist on this is there's
also big money behind it.
Maybe that's not a twist,
but anyway, let's go to some of
those details.
So there was a sudden interest in
school boards,
it is not an organic grassroots
movement of angry parents.
Rather it's an effort orchestrated
by seasoned right wing political
operatives who have formed
a constellation of well-funded
groups dedicated to
disrupting school boards.
So with the help of conservative
media, they've already succeeded in
pushing school boards into the
center of these political debates,
which is why we've all seen this.
So just to give you guys a reminder
of some of these things that have
happened, this was the scene
down in Poway, California,
I think down in near San Diego.
I think it was Poway, but
it's down in San Diego where some
folks disrupted the school board
meeting that wasn't open to
the public, it was amongst
the school board members.
They left and then these folks came
in and declared themselves
the new school board.
Let's watch this really quick.
>> I have not been a member of any
party or organization or
otherwise to actively overthrow
the government of the United States
or the state of California.
>> You guys can go home,
you're finished.
>> I will not advocate or become
a member of any party [INAUDIBLE]
to overthrow the government of
the United States,
the state of California by force or
violence [INAUDIBLE].
>> [INAUDIBLE] Sergent Thomas,
Police- >> Sorry, wait it's
not time for you to speak.
>> Okay, well, you guys need to-
>> No, they need to vacate because
they actually have lost their jobs.
So this is the new board,
they need to leave.
So, >> And they didn't adjourn, so
>> So we're good.
>> We're good.
So that was the ragtag version of
them doing things like this,
but there is more of
an organized effort to this.
So there's a Virginia based
parents defending education.
That's the group.
They've emerged as this leading
group that targets
the school boards.
Their activities include
encouraging parents to
create social media pages to quote
document examples of woke
indoctrination and waging lawsuits
against, again, woke curricula.
[LAUGH] That's fun.
So they've also put together this
indoctrination map,
is what they're calling it, where
it targets certain schools for
reasons that they may be
teaching kids about anti-racism,
offering teachers support.
Okay, listen to this, anti-racism,
offering teachers support through
affinity groups and
acknowledging inequity.
This is what they're opposing.
[LAUGH] >> Anti-racism,
acknowledging inequity.
So if you're not looking at
the racism problem, or
looking at the inequity problems,
then you're just kind of acting
like nothing is wrong.
It goes back to the argument of,
I don't see any color, I'm just
here to continue to perpetuate
the complete disenfranchisement of
certain folks in the country and
I just don't see it.
So they've got a map and
you can see all those lib areas
where they're talking about how
there's these woke
groups that they need to target.
So this claims to be a grassroots
effort, but as I pointed out,
this is all backed up further.
So let's look at this.
Nicole Neily,
who's the group's president is also
the founder of Speech First.
It's the right-wing nonprofit group
that advocates for
free speech on campuses.
In 2018, The Nation reported that
speech first board of directors
included a former head of a Koch
backed trust and
two conservative attorneys from
Koch funded programs.
That's very grassroots.
So prior to her work with
Speech First,
Nellie also worked for another
Koch-funded organized organization,
including Franklin News Foundation
and the conservative nonprofit,
Independent Women's Forum.
I'm sorry, Neily, I believe,
was also a Koch summer fellow for
both the Center for Financial
Privacy and Human Rights and the
Competitive Enterprise Institute.
And that's according to this
watchdog group, SourceWatch.
So is this going to [LAUGH] work?
Okay, this is the thing,
this has always been this way.
When we have money backing these
types of groups that are supposed
to look like they're grassroots,
that's where we get
the term astroturf from.
When they're just running political
campaigns and they're just,
they're funded by the people and
the people that have brought me
here to discuss the problems that
are wrong in our country.
Now those people in those groups
that are out here and
are disrupting school boards,
those are real people.
I'm not saying that, but they're
just getting backed by people who
are pressing these buttons and
making them think that there's this
attack on their children's safety,
knowledge, education.
So they can be these foot soldiers
in this, quote,
unquote, grassroots organization.
>> So this reminds me
of when the Koch Brothers took over
the anger about the bank bailouts,
and that led to the Tea Party.
And people were so furious that all
the banks had gone under and
cost everybody jobs,
we'd lost tens of millions of jobs,
I think was 13 million.
And meanwhile all the bankers were
getting bailed out, so
they're furious.
They started Tea Party, and the
Koch Brothers did something smart.
They pulled up buses.
They already had the buses painted,
they had donuts,
they had all the infrastructure.
And the real people were angry and
they took those real people and
instead of bringing them to
Wall Street to protest the banks
and their bailouts.
They brought them to anti Obamacare
rallies.
And they said, get your government
hand off our Medicare.
It doesn't have to make sense.
They're in the finance industry,
the Koch Brothers are in in
different ways.
We don't want you protesting us,
but if they pass healthcare that
would help you, that hurts our
other business interests.
So why don't we take these schmucks
who are real people, but who aren't
the brightest bulbs, right?
And we'll just use them for
our own purposes to make money.
So this one looks like grassroots.
Those are real deranged parents
that you saw, but who's leading
the charge and who organize, and
who's got the big money behind it?
A Koch fellow, I do declare.
A Koch fellow doesn't quite sound
grassroots, do they?
And of course the arrogance of
the actual grassroots parents
there, right?
No, they're not the school
board anymore, we are.
Why you didn't go through any of
the democratic process?
You didn't get elected.
You didn't ask the other parents
that also care, right?
You just decided, I'm just going to
take the power, right?
I mean, the entitlement is
unbelievable.
Now imagine a bunch of black dads
or Muslim dads go over and go, no,
that's it,
we're taking over the school board.
You guys are all evicted,
we're now in charge.
[LAUGH] >> Do you have any idea how
quickly he would get
a baton upside the head, okay?
Meanwhile, the cop is
beseeching them.
Like, could you, I can't tell,
I don't know.
What do you mean?
No, move them out, move them out.
I know, but they're white and
they're right wingers and
don't they run this country?
No, no,
you have to actually win elections.
We all count.
It's called America.
I know you hate it, but
that's how it works.
And they're sick of it.
They're like, we don't want to do
the goddamn elections.
We keep losing.
I just want to go in there and say,
okay, you're
not the school board anymore, I am.
Bunch of children.
And so the Koch people see that and
go, perfect.
They don't know anything.
We'll just direct them for
our own purposes.
Sabrina.
>> I love how they even expect as
if anybody's even going to
recognize them as an official
school board, saying, no,
you're dismissed.
Okay, are the teachers going to
accept you?
Are the other parents going
to accept you?
Of course not.
But I think it's also important to
ask why school boards specifically?
Why is there such
a strong organized effort behind
protesting at school boards?
And I feel like maybe it's so that
they can use the children as pawns.
Because then they can justify
the violent actions that they've
been taking, granted the video that
was shown earlier was a little bit
more tame even though they kind of
overtook it.
But when when you take kind of
violent action in the name of
children safety, it seems like you
can kind of get away with a lot.
And I think maybe that's part
of why they're choosing school
boards specifically.
>> Well, that's part of it too,
because I think they'll throw
out the lines of, man, they're
indoctrinating our children.
They're co-opting our
children's education.
They're telling them all these
non-facts and look they're changing
the direction of
our country through our children.
Don't you want to protect your
children, they're pedophiles?
Every overreaching statement that
they can say about what these folks
are doing, is just a ten times fold
version of what they're doing.
So they'll suddenly go
behind the scenes.
This isn't using the children.
This isn't piggybacking off of
children's education to then say
that, hey, we need to take over the
school boards to not protect them.
Because of something that we need
to push for,
some kind of political positioning
that these folks that have
the money are trying to push for.
So it almost disarms folks from
saying, why are you guys
using the children for
these political stances?
because they've already started
their whole conversation by saying,
you're using the children for
these stances.
So now it seems crazy for
both sides to be pointing the same
finger at each other.
They've co-opted that
message already.
>> Well Jayar,, I mean,
even the title of the group is
hilariously ironic.
Speech First, where the whole point
of the group is freedom of speech.
Now don't talk about racism.
Wait, what?
I thought you were for
freedom of speech.
And I don't know if you know this,
but racism actually happened
in this country and
we're teaching history.
It's a little bit hard to avoid.
[LAUGH] Right, there's the whole
thing about slavery.
We got to teach it somehow,
don't we?
The Civil Rights Movement,
Jim Crow, did that not happen?
Shut up.
Don't ever speak again.
Speech First.
[LAUGH] I mean,
because guys you got to understand,
if you're a decent person,
you're a rational person.
If you're watching The Young Turks,
so it's hard for you to understand
that right wing mentality.
They think freedom of speech means
I get to speak and you don't.
And they don't think that's
hypocritical, because that's how
deep seated their entitlement is.
They genuinely believe that.
No, freedom of speech is for me,
it's not for
you teaching about racism.
By the way, Texas says we should
now teach both perspectives.
The reverse of anti-racism.
Is that pro racism?
It's a real question.
What are we supposed to?
How do you give the other
perspective?
And by the way, these guys going
to the school boards,
we picked a fairly benign one.
Remember we showed you the one
before, the well dressed
guy talking about how he needed 20
strong men in his house,
in his bedroom.
No, 20 strong men to go take over
the school board and
physically remove them.
So they're threatening violence all
across the country.
Meanwhile, there's some
billionaires behind them going.
[LAUGH] This is the crazy system we
live under, because that's
the money that drives it.