Hi there! Welcome to Easy A–Your go-to source for quick and easy actions you can take in five minutes or less about the issues you care about.
Are you a busy mom? Or maybe your work is so hectic you can’t think about anything else during the day? A lot of us are also taking care of parents or other loved ones too, leaving little time for anything else.
The good news is that these are things you can do while you’re waiting in the school pick up line, on your lunch break, or even at your kid’s soccer practice – anywhere you happen to be! And you can easily share Easy A with your friends so they can be in the know, too! We’ll send you a new action to take every week–just one, we promise –and it will always be something you can do in five minutes or less. Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Read This: A History of Voting Rights — and Voter Suppression — in America
The right to vote is one of the most fundamental principles of our democracy, but it hasn’t always been guaranteed for all Americans. And for some of us, it’s still under constant threat. How is that possible? Let’s take a look at the progression of voting rights over time.
A History of Voting Rights and Voter Suppression
When America was founded in 1776, only white, landowning men could vote. Some states further restricted the right to only Christians. In the early 1800s, states began to remove the landowning requirement, allowing more white men to vote.
Black men gained the right to vote in 1870 through the 15th Amendment. But even then, many were not able to exercise that right, because the white people in power put up intentional barriers. They required literacy tests to vote when they knew that Black Americans were educationally disadvantaged, or completely random (and impossible) tests requiring Black voters to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar, or how many bumps were on a cucumber.
They also charged poll taxes — fees for registering and voting — despite Black Americans being economically disadvantaged. White voters were spared by a literal “grandfather clause” that said anyone with a father or grandfather who voted before the abolition of slavery (that is, white men) were excluded from the tax. And there was often intimidation and violence at polling locations from groups like the Ku Klux Klan to keep Black men from voting.
During this time, women were fighting for their voting rights, but white women did not always include Black women in the movement. All women finally gained the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment.
Progress and Regress
The Civil Rights movement brought about the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed those discriminatory literacy tests and other barriers to voting based on race. It also established a rule that the federal government would oversee the passage of any new voting laws in states that had a history of racism. This was known as “preclearance” and was meant to protect people of color from new voter suppression laws — and it worked! It led to an immediate surge of new Black voters in the same year. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t happily end there.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ended preclearance, ruling in Shelby County v. Holder that it was unconstitutional. This meant that the states with a history of discrimination could oversee their own voting laws again. Almost immediately, states began to introduce new, restrictive voter laws.
Modern Day Voter Suppression
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since Shelby, 29 states have passed 94 new laws making it harder for people to vote. At least 1/3 of those laws likely would’ve been prevented by federal preclearance under the Voting Rights Act if it still existed. And the gap in turnout rates between white voters and voters of color has grown since the decision.
After the 2020 election, 440 voter restriction bills were introduced nationwide. This included a wave of bills targeting mail-in voting, mainly because its growth during the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in voter turnout. In 2023 alone, 356 restrictive voting bills were introduced.
Why does this voter suppression persist? For the same reason it started 250 years ago — the white, Christian men in power want to stay in power and they are afraid that they won’t win elections if there is an increase in more diverse voters. Far-right extremist legislators in districts and states with high populations of voters of color are the ones pushing the hardest for more restrictive voter laws.
What do restrictive voter laws and voter suppression actually look like?
Here are just some examples:
- Laws requiring an approved voter ID (that can be costly and harder for some groups to get).
- Laws restricting and criminalizing voter assistance (like making it a crime to hand out snacks or water to voters waiting in line).
- Putting restrictions on who can hold voter registration drives, and how they’re run.
- Limiting voter registration periods, early voting periods, or polling locations.
- Ending or restricting mail-in voting.
- Purging voter rolls, especially without informing purged voters.
- Unfair drawing of voting districts to favor a certain party (aka gerrymandering).
According to the Brennan Center and the ACLU, these types of laws disproportionately keep Black and brown people from voting. These are usually state laws, but we’re also currently facing federal attempts to suppress voters.
Donald Trump just issued a sweeping Executive Order to take more control over elections and to implement a highly restrictive voter ID requirement nationwide. At the same time, MAGA extremists in Congress are trying to pass the SAVE Act, which has a similarly restrictive ID requirement. These efforts could take away voting rights from tens of thousands of married women, immigrants, transgender people, and new voters.
What Can We Do?
We can all agree that we want safe and fair elections, but passing extremely restrictive voter laws is not how we ensure that. Everyone should be able to vote. In the coming weeks, we’ll dig deeper into what we can do to fight voter suppression and ensure voting rights for all.
Take It One Step Further: Tell Your Friends About School Board Extremism
OK, we’ve been talking a lot about school board extremism these last few weeks. We know that reasonable common sense parents like us are the majority, and extremists are a very loud, but very tiny group of people. We know they’ve been working hard to take over our school boards to push their agenda and control what our kids can learn.
And we know one more thing: local elections are happening all over the country and early voting has already started in a lot of communities. Now’s your chance to get the word out and warn your friends about what’s happening. Click below to share this post on social right now:
Do This: Take Action Against School Board Extremism
So now you have learned how dangerous school board extremism can be for our schools, and you’re probably wondering, “Ok, but what can I do?” We’ve got the answer! The great thing is that you can attend school board meetings and even speak at the meetings to share your ideas and address your concerns. You can also bring other parents with you so they can speak up too. And don’t worry, if you aren’t able to go in person, you can also email them. 
Remember, mainstream parents like us are the majority – It’s up to us to make sure our voices are heard. If you’ve had enough of a tiny number of super loud extremists turning your school board meetings into a three-ring circus and bullying your kid’s favorite teachers, we can help. We’ve got a super handy Parent Playbook that gives you everything you need to get started. Download your copy now! Once you read through it, I guarantee you’ll be thinking, “Oh yeah, I can totally do this!”
You don’t have to sit on the sidelines. You can be the one standing up for your community and protecting your kid’s education. Thanks for taking your Easy Action for this week! ??
Watch This: What’s Happening With Our School Boards?!
School boards are being used to dismantle public education. That sounds really sounds wild to say, right? How can the people elected to support public education be the ones who are attacking it? But it really is happening–And not just in a handful of places. It’s happening in school districts all across our country.
That’s why it is so important to learn about our local school boards and how we can support pro-public education school board candidates. Your Easy A action for this week: watch this short clip of school board member Carrie Douglass talking about what’s happening with our school boards.
Want to listen to the full episode on school board extremism? Check out our full podcast episode The Cost of Extremism – School Board Extremism or anywhere you get your favorite podcasts. Thanks for taking action this week!
Read This: What’s Happening With Our School Boards?!
Something strange is happening with our school boards. In the past few years, local school board elections went from being low-funded, grassroots campaigns to becoming battlegrounds for extremist takeovers. National conservative political groups are pouring excessive amounts of money into these races to get extremists elected to school boards all across America. And it’s happening in your district too.
In 2021, school board races started getting more attention as extremists began manipulating the frustration parents were feeling about COVID-era school closures (You might have even had conversations with parents in your community who were extremely upset over school closures and mask mandates). That frustration created an opening for outside groups. They latched on to that anger and used it to turn those parents
against public schools. And then suddenly, we had a loud, vocal minority of parents disrupting school board meetings, demanding that schools re-open and that mask mandates stop.
In the midst of this chaos, Moms for Liberty was founded, and those same parents who were angry about masks started speaking up at school board meetings about other things – wanting to ban books, attacking school curriculum, and gutting diversity and equity policies. And these attacks didn’t just happen at school board meetings. They started targeting school board members at their homes. Suddenly being a school board member, or even an advocate for public education, could result in personal attacks.
What’s even more disturbing is that these school board fights are meant to look like grassroots efforts, but in reality they’re actually part of a larger attempt by extremist groups to take over school boards and eventually dismantle public education. If that sounds pretty extreme, it’s because it is. And many extremist politicians are actually saying it out loud. And that’s really the bottom line here: public education benefits all of our kids, but extremists want to take it away.
These attacks are hurting our public schools, our teachers and most importantly our kids. Children shouldn’t be paying the price for extremism – but they are. And that’s why we–as parents, educators, and community members–need to know what’s going on.
We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Make Your Plan to Vote!
The 2023 election is less than SIX weeks away! October is right around the corner and before you know it, we’ll be putting away the Halloween decorations and heading to the polls.
So we have a question for you: what’s your voting plan?
Step 1: Do you know when and where you can vote? In many states you must be registered before election day, and those deadlines are fast approaching in October. So if you haven’t done it yet, check your voter registration status.
Step 2: Nail down the details. Will you vote early in person, vote by mail, or wait for election day? What time of day will you head to the polls? Do you need to schedule around your work or kids? Some employers do allow you to take time off to vote. Use your state’s board of elections website to find polling locations and times. Once you decide, put it on your calendar and set a reminder! And be sure to make a note of what time the polls close in your district. If the polls close while you are still standing in line, don’t leave. Stay in line until you vote. It’s your right!
Step 3: Now that you have a plan, reach out to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers. Make sure everyone you know is planning to vote by November 7th!
Do This: Tell Lawmakers to Ban Assault Weapons
By now you’ve heard from some survivors of mass shootings, and you’ve learned about the true cost of active shooter drills. And you’re probably wondering why we are spending billions of dollars for active shooter drills instead of addressing the actual problem of gun violence. Mainstream women (and men) are becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of action by our elected officials. We know![quote: Students want change... They want to see [lawmakers] banning assault weapons.](https://redwine.blue/wp-content/smush-webp/2023/09/CostofExtremism_Tretta_Option1.png.webp)
that active shooter drills are just a bandaid on the problem of gun violence, and not a solution.
Ready to take action?
It’s past time to support gun sense legislation – join students and parents across America and tell Congress to support an assault weapons ban. Click here now to send a letter to your lawmakers. We’ve written it for you–all you have to do is click a few buttons! Thanks for taking action this week.
Watch This: School Shooting Survivor Talks About Gun Violence
Now that you know the true cost of active shooter drills, you’re probably wondering – why are 95% of school districts still participating in these drills? You’re not alone. Mainstream moms are fed up with a culture that values gun ownership over the lives of our children. Why are our children paying the cost of mass shootings while our legislators continue to ignore the problem?
That’s a question Ashbey Beasley wants answered. Ashbey was not involved in any gun violence prevention work, until she survived a mass shooting with her young son, at a Fourth of July parade. Now she speaks out about gun violence and the unexpected costs of active shooter drills. Ashbey is not willing to accept that we have normalized mass shootings with active shooter drills. And neither are we.
Watch this short clip to hear more of our interview with Ashbey Beasley:
To listen to the full podcast episode that explores the true cost and impact of active shooter drills, click here.
Read This: The Impact of Active Shooter Drills
Did you know 95% of school districts conduct active shooter drills? Some fast facts:
- There is NO research that backs up the value of active shooter drills.
- There’s significant evidence that these drills actually have a negative impact on the mental health of students, teachers, and school staff.
And here’s the kicker:
- The push for active shooter drills has created a $2.7 billion industry that feeds off the fear of school shootings. That’s right…companies are profiting off our kids’ fear. And these drills are just a bandaid on the problem that elected officials refuse to take action on.
Research conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety and Georgia Tech found that active shooter drills in schools are associated with a 39% increase in depression, a 42% increase in stress and anxiety, and a 23% increase in mental health problems. There was also a 22% increase in concerns over death in students, some as young as five years old. These fears of death also affect teachers and parents. So while active shooter drills are continuously being pushed instead of passing gun safety regulations, the long term impact on schools and the wider community is being ignored. And our children are paying the price.
Victims of gun violence often talk about a tipping point, when enough Americans will demand action on gun violence in this country. We know it is past time that our elected leaders take action on gun violence prevention. Children should not be the ones paying the price for this extremism.
Thanks for taking your easy action for this week. See you next Thursday!
We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Are You Registered to Vote?
Feeling a little busy? We get it. Summer vacation plans are in the rearview mirror. It’s back to school season, and fall sports are picking up. And the holidays are right around the corner – but do you know what else is coming up? Election Day! And because it’s an “off-year election” voter turnout is usually pretty low. So that means your vote is even more important! That’s right…You have the power to influence the outcome of this election! This week’s Easy A action is simple, just check to make sure you are registered to vote and that all of your information is up to date. Head to www.vote.gov to check your voter registration. It’s that easy! Thanks for taking your Easy A for this week.
Take it One Step Further: Decoding Parents’ Rights
Sign this petition right now to tell mainstream media like ABC, NBC, and Fox News that extremist groups like Moms for Liberty do not speak for you. Remind them that regular American parents like you and me don’t support banning books, eliminating sex education, or whitewashing American history. We want our public school teachers to have the resources they need to make sure our kids are learning what they need to know to prepare them for the future.