Attendees of this year’s Brigham Young University Education Week will have the chance to hear from a wide spectrum of speakers — from Latter-day Saint apostle Neil L. Andersen to football Hall of Famer Steve Young and a name devoted Fox News viewers are likely to recognize.
Tina Descovich, co-founder of the conservative parental rights organization Moms for Liberty, is one of some 300 lecturers to present at the adults-oriented event open to the public from Aug. 19 to 23.
(Tina Descovich) Tina Descovich is a co-founder of Moms for Liberty. She is scheduled to speak at BYU Education Week.
Her presentation, titled “The Sacred Responsibility and Fundamental Right to Raise Our Children Is Under Attack,” will, she said in an interview, “look at policies implemented in recent years that are working to divide parents from children.”
Using “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” plus “scriptures and words from our prophets,” Descovich said her class will also “explore how parents can strengthen their families against these policies and work within their communities…to make sure better policies are implemented.”
The civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Moms for Liberty a “far-right” and “extremist” organization.
Descovich disputed those labels, calling her group nonpartisan.
“It is not extreme to believe that God blessed me with my children,” she said, “and I have a right and responsibility to raise them.”
Still, news that BYU is giving a platform to one of the group’s leaders worries some BYU alums, among them Provo’s Ashley Rayback. The 44-year-old mother of five said the apparent “endorsement” from the church’s premier educational institution of an organization “that is unfriendly to teachers and educators of all kinds plus state and local school boards” is “extremely concerning.”
“If they wanted a parent group, why not the mainstream and much-larger PTA?” asked Rayback, whose family has a long legacy of donating to BYU. “It makes me wonder who [BYU] is talking to, who is in their ear, that they have this legacy group with a proven record of getting work done, but they chose to go with one from the fringe.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and operates BYU, has a strict policy of partisan political neutrality. In 2023, for instance, the faith’s top leaders warned members against straight-ticket voting, deeming it a “threat to democracy.” And, in early 2024, the Utah Area Presidency signed a letter urging voters in the state to prioritize candidates’ “integrity, ability and service” over party affiliation.
Moms for Liberty and Descovich, who is a Latter-day Saint, have taken repeated aim at presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, arguing the two are “anti-parent” and pose a threat to the nation’s children.
BYU Education Week in Provo, where Descovich will speak, comes during the final stretch of what most experts agree will be a close presidential election and one in which Latter-day Saints could help decide the outcome in battleground states such as Arizona and Nevada.
About Moms for Liberty
Organized in response to COVID-19 public health safety measures in schools, Moms for Liberty found a second wind in the fight against curricula addressing racism before focusing its attention on transgender youth in sports, restrooms and other aspects of campus life. The group also is involved in efforts to ban books dealing with sex, race, gender and sexuality.
Proponents argue that the organization is necessary to counter government overreach by public schools aimed at indoctrinating children with liberal beliefs around these issues. Detractors, meanwhile, assert that Moms for Liberty further marginalizes racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals, and is responsible for dividing communities and unfairly attacking teachers and other school administrators.
Moms for Liberty does not endorse presidential nominees but is deeply embedded in the MAGA (short for former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan) media universe, peppering its Facebook feed with stories from outlets like Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and Newsmax, a chief purveyor of 2020 election misinformation.
‘My faith drives everything I do’
Descovich, who is from Florida, described her activism as a direct outgrowth of her Latter-day Saint beliefs.
“My faith,” she said, “drives everything I do and every decision I make in my life.”
At the same time, she emphasized that members of the global church “hold a variety of opinions on all issues and belong to all political parties.”
“They are not, she added, “a monolithic culture.”
Provo school board member Gina Hales, for instance, said she prefers her children confront ideas and books that challenge their values and viewpoints in the “safe setting” that is school.
(Gina Hales) Provo City School Board Member Gina Hales, a Latter-day Saint, says she wants her children to be exposed to a wide variety of views and values, including ones that conflict with her own, while K-12 students still live at home.
“As a parent, I view myself as needing to teach and to protect my children,” said Hales, who has a doctorate in education from BYU. “And I feel that the best way to do that is to allow them to have a variety of experiences” while they are still living at home and can have open conversations with her about what they read, hear and learn.
About Education Week
BYU Continuing Education, which oversees an online high school diploma program, is responsible for soliciting and reviewing applications from potential speakers for Education Week, according to BYU spokesperson Carri Jenkins.
More than 1,000 classes will be offered this year on an array of topics — from finance and family history to the Constitution and church history. Jenkins said the school expects more than 16,000 attendees next week.
Tickets are open to individuals 14 and older and range in cost from $25 for a single morning to $98 for the full event.
Other planned speakers include the leader of the church’s worldwide Young Women organization, Emily Belle Freeman, artist and BYU professor of church history Anthony Sweat and emeritus Latter-day Saint general authority Tad R. Callister.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tad Callister speaks during the Constitution Month Kick Off News Conference at the Capitol on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The emeritus Latter-day Saint general authority is among the hundreds slated to present at BYU Education Week this year.
Last year, Callister found himself at the center of questions regarding partisanship and church leadership when a group called Why I Love America invited a controversial speaker associated with Christian nationalism to address Utahns on the anniversary of the final signing of the Constitution.
More recently, he appeared alongside Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a GOP fundraiser, where the Latter-day Saint spoke about the role he saw divine inspiration playing in the founding of America. He specified at the event that he did not represent the church in an official capacity.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
