Private School Playbook

If your kids go to private school, they may be experiencing more politics and extremism in the classroom than in public schools, and much of it may have appeared suddenly in the past year. Private schools can change their approach to education much faster than public schools, and much more dramatically.

Because private schools are not funded by the government, most of the legal protections that public school students enjoy do not apply to private school students, nor are private schools influenced by school boards, state legislatures, or elected officials.

But if your private school has gone woke, there are still some powerful tools at your disposal. A private school depends on its reputation for prestige and excellence, and on its ability to raise money. The best way to get a private school to tone down its woke activism can be to tell the world the truth about what the school is doing.

Here’s what you can do:

Organize – If you’re concerned, then many other parents, alums, students, and teachers are concerned as well. Find them, talk to them, and organize a united front. The more the better, but you should also be discreet in how you approach people. The members of your group should ask the head of the school for meetings to express their concerns. In our experience, very little comes from these meetings – but before escalating, the right thing to do, if you feel comfortable doing it, is to share your concerns directly and personally with the head of the school.

Publicize – The single most important building block of any reform effort is showing people the truth about how the school is changing. Remember that donors, alums, prospective students, and parents typically interact with the school through its officials, where the reality of indoctrination and extremism will never be disclosed. To cut through this filter, you can join parents and students at many other schools by starting a “woke at” Instagram page where examples of woke excesses are documented. We have a special section showing how to anonymously and safely create an account, what to post, etc. We can help you start your page and connect you with others who are publicizing these problems at their private schools with “woke at” pages.

Pressure – We’ll help direct local and national media to your Instagram page. You can make sure parents, donors, alums, and especially members of the school’s board see it (and this can even be done anonymously). Develop a list of demands for reform that you can present to school officials. Encourage parents to withhold contributions to annual fund drives, explicitly over the school’s embrace of a woke agenda.

Additional Resources:

Woke Schooling: A Toolkit for Concerned Parents, Manhattan Institute