CPAC speakers hail school choice, end of gender ideology in public schools

Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2025 / 08:00 am

Speakers at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to root gender ideology out of the American public education system and expressed high hopes for the major expansion of school choice in the country.

“The public education system in America has literally failed the American people,” Erika Donalds, who serves on the boards of Moms for Liberty and the Independent Women’s Forum, said during a panel discussion at CPAC on Friday.

“It hasn’t lived up to the promise where we parents were told if you send your child to this school for eight hours a day, we’re going to teach them to read and do math and achieve their own American dream — that was a lie,” said Donalds, who is the wife of Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida.

Jack Brewer, a former NFL player and official in the first Trump administration, said on the same panel that the American education system was not created to “indoctrinate [children] to make them believe they could be transgender and be any gender they wanted to choose.”

He credited Trump for standing for “biblical truth” through his executive orders, adding: “God created man and woman and that’s it.” 

Shortly after his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that prohibits K–12 schools that receive federal funds from helping facilitate the gender transition of a child. This includes actions like using pronouns inconsistent with his or her biological sex or permitting a child to use a restroom or locker room inconsistent with his or her sex.

Trump also signed an executive order that prohibits biological boys and men from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

“Everything that we asked for, we’re getting,” Kimberly Fletcher, the president of Moms for America, said in a separate speech later that afternoon.

Fletcher said mothers who have religious faith should be more active in the political process “if we want to continue to win” and warned “there’s a real threat to our country and it’s not going away.”

“Do not think that the devil sleeps,” Fletcher said. “They have just gone back underground. And this is our opportunity to make sure that ground never opens up again.”

The speakers also urged stronger school choice in the country, including Brewer, who said it was important for churches to run more schools and day cares and to empower organizations that support school choice.