https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to education en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/07/17/why-christian-right-wants-destroy-department-education This article first appeared in The Sword and the Sandwich, Lavin’s newsletter about deadly serious extremism and serious sandwiches. This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration can go ahead with its ambitious, ruinous plan of gutting the… Thu, 17 Jul 2025 05:07:19 EDT Talia Lavin 573bb264-9a79-4e15-97bc-0d6b9f44e035 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/06/27/fool-took-palantirs-fascism-campus This week it was revealed that White House deputy chief of staff and avid White nationalist Stephen Miller , the man behind the brutal escalation of ICE raids all over the country, owns between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of stock… Fri, 27 Jun 2025 04:50:53 EDT Annika Brockschmidt, Thomas Lecaque b4a95374-5507-4cd6-91bc-8c4a0a6eb799 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/04/18/fight-against-right-wing-appalachian-school-choice-politics-fight-democracy-and-future This article first appeared in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue of our sibling publication, The Public Eye—a quarterly magazine for analysis and commentary on the US and Global Right. In October 2024, a flyer appeared in the mailboxes of Kentucky residents… Fri, 18 Apr 2025 06:53:46 EDT Mary Reynolds, Carol Mason fd441d96-b26c-4e9b-a955-2f3fec583090 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/04/16/exposing-and-resisting-coordinated-attacks-higher-education Isaac Kamola discusses the findings from his report Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and Legislative Attacks on Higher Education, and how anticolonial theory and organizing lessons can guide strategies to block far-right forces. Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:56:54 EDT Hialy Gutierrez 6c36f658-fb36-4d0d-a541-3d2821216282 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/03/25/canaries-classroom In Kentucky and West Virginia, attacks on public education by the state and federal governments foreshadow the authoritarian future promised by Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation on a national scale. Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:42:01 EDT Mary Reynolds, Carol Mason e1c9d1ad-36bb-479b-b43b-baa757e4166f https://politicalresearch.org/2024/12/13/education-wars Jennifer C. Berkshire’s interview with PRA about her and Jack Schneider’s new book, The Education Wars, provides a road map for defending public education. Fri, 13 Dec 2024 02:09:08 EST Alyssa Bowen 196cb37f-d426-4897-b502-bf75158e11f9 https://politicalresearch.org/2022/09/21/next-frontier-comprehensive-sex-education-post-roe-era Watch the roundtable discussion on sex and relationships education and strategies to stop the Right from dismantling the right to education. Wed, 21 Sep 2022 09:22:44 EDT Political Research Associates 23f34146-7f96-4d34-8047-90c41be512f0 https://politicalresearch.org/2021/12/16/between-secular-rock-and-fundamentalist-hard-place Jerry Falwell Sr co-founded Liberty University as a place of fundamentalist education. When Falwell Jr. took over, the scandals that followed him left Liberty University reckoning with misdeeds under the Falwells’ tenures. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 09:18:48 EST Carolyn Gallaher e8ec9863-ee38-45a2-aef2-ddaca3f8cae8 https://politicalresearch.org/2021/10/26/exodus-or-transformation COVID-19 increased the number of parents considering homeschooling. Heacock examines how the Christian Right has used homeschooling to further their dominionist agenda, while also pushing their agenda in public schools. Tue, 26 Oct 2021 09:12:50 EDT Dr. Clint Heacock 39c4b913-e485-450f-8446-f62ee06f6fcb https://politicalresearch.org/2021/10/21/sowing-seeds-white-supremacy-through-education The Koch network has worked to undermine the rights and liberties of non-white communities through a decades-long assault on public education, with Critical Race Theory most recently in its sights. Thu, 21 Oct 2021 09:50:24 EDT Jasmine Banks b302eb84-468a-4916-91ce-f65e20c44766 https://politicalresearch.org/2021/06/16/precarity-american-way From a deeply-rooted historical analysis through to the sharp decline into precarity under neoliberalism to pandemic-induced unemployment, we traced the ways in which the capitalist class keep Americans poised on the precipice of ruin and isolation. Wed, 16 Jun 2021 01:39:11 EDT Political Research Associates 64f9342b-99a1-4b84-81bc-aecb45efe06e https://politicalresearch.org/2020/10/27/conservative-christian-corporate Exemplifying why she was nominated to the position, Betsy DeVos has capitalized on COVID-19 emergency measures to expedite her long-standing goal of dismantling public education. Tue, 27 Oct 2020 09:26:40 EDT Alex DiBranco 4aa0acbc-a09a-4544-a7f5-bf94ad47b5c1 https://politicalresearch.org/2020/04/01/homeschooling-during-covid-19 In response to COVID-related school closures across the country, homeschool organizations like the conservative evangelical-affiliated Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) are responding by recruiting parents trapped by fear and circumstance. Wed, 01 Apr 2020 03:23:07 EDT Heron Greenesmith d58c812e-4190-4b54-92cb-b2ce332c69c7 https://politicalresearch.org/2019/02/22/struggle-lgbtq-inclusion-christian-colleges-and-universities Alumni and students of Christian university campuses are vocally pressing for LGBTQ inclusion, but resistance to that change has been built not only in ideology, but in economic circumstances as well. Fri, 22 Feb 2019 01:51:38 EST Chrissy Stroop c7a8f691-cb17-4635-9447-82f950eb2d72 https://politicalresearch.org/2018/09/13/dismantling-public-education-one-brick-time Pioneer Institute bills itself as an “independent,” “non-partisan” think tank, but a closer look tells a different story. Thu, 13 Sep 2018 03:23:48 EDT Jessica Quiason 7ee709b4-70a9-42d4-a36d-59e1bf6563d2 https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/17/war-ivory-tower In an effort to silence academics, right-wing activists, including many from the Alt Right, have doxed, threatened, and smeared professors across the country, without regard for academic hierarchy, type of institution, or discipline. Thu, 17 May 2018 04:07:52 EDT Carolyn Gallaher 5886129b-4ba6-4a60-8729-f865837ce033 https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/07/profile-right-turning-point-usa-tpusa Claiming to have a presence on over 1,000 college campuses and high schools, TPUSA targets left-wing students and academics. Mon, 07 May 2018 06:43:08 EDT Gabe Meadow baff4311-56d4-4838-afe2-f1efc1b93989 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/06/26/historic-decision-day-scotus-sends-lgbt-americans-mixed-messages For LGBT legal nerds like me, June 26 is an important day. Every major pro-equality decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past 15 years has been issued on June 26. From the decimation of anti-sodomy laws… Mon, 26 Jun 2017 06:05:32 EDT Sunnivie Brydum 37e71c42-2df5-49f1-b39d-9feabd4e6f14 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/25/devos-literally-cant-name-discriminatory-policy-shed-refuse-fund In a tense exchange with Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark on Wednesday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos refused to identify a single example of discriminatory policies that would make a private school ineligible for federal funding. The conversation, captured by CSPAN… Thu, 25 May 2017 03:34:56 EDT Sunnivie Brydum 6c51fb73-1a19-4241-bc76-a2b56a45ccaf https://politicalresearch.org/2017/04/18/first100days-crash-course-week-12 From “school choice” schemes and the neoliberal privatization movement to the influence of the Christian Right on curriculum and school policy, public education is a key battleground. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 04:10:21 EDT Political Research Associates 350f1a34-cc84-4423-a648-c62af8fff976 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/03/06/dutch-treat-betsy-devos-and-christian-schools-movement Perhaps Betsy DeVos can be forgiven for imagining that America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were “real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” I mean, she wasn’t there in the middle of the 19th century, so how could… Mon, 06 Mar 2017 04:24:19 EST Peter Laarman 15835578-eb84-461e-bcba-b85cfe4df4cd https://religiondispatches.org/2016/12/27/teaching-world-religion-dumpster-fire How different might this election cycle have been had more voters been willing to be curious about, understand, accept, or even embrace a pluralist nation, rather than panic in the face of the other? Tue, 27 Dec 2016 09:00:50 EST Kate Blanchard 98eda014-49b8-4419-aece-dea9e91d9f08 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/12/05/shades-christian-reconstructionism-trump-education-pick-betsy-devos Education is arguably the most important front in the battle to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on contemporary culture. Mon, 05 Dec 2016 11:41:02 EST Julie Ingersoll 90d9842c-d9d2-4c5c-98c3-7c142e723d40 https://politicalresearch.org/2015/12/22/koch-family-youve-never-heard-influencing-state-legislatures The DeVoses exert influence over state and national policy making. Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:55:18 EST Jonathon Orta 32cb969b-5c57-469d-abc6-a3ab026515fe https://politicalresearch.org/2015/10/19/history-wars-exposed Education has long been a front in the U.S. culture wars. Mon, 19 Oct 2015 02:29:43 EDT Gabriel Joffe, Katherine Stewart 470aa506-1fc9-4af7-91a7-20f1ce42bfaa