The back-to-school season was once filled with exciting anticipation as children embarked on a new learning adventure. However, in recent years, schools have become ground zero in an attempt to fundamentally transform America. Traditional academics, like reading, writing and arithmetic, have been replaced with agenda-driven curricula to reform the values of our youth, and less to provide them with the critical building blocks of a liberal education. California-based nonprofit organization Protect Our Kids (POK) is a coalition of parents, community leaders, attorneys, physicians, pastors and teachers united in the belief that public schools today have co-opted education to advance ideological and political narratives. 

In an effort to empower parents as their children’s primary educators, POK is providing Back-to-School Questions Every Parent Should Ask, a comprehensive free guide consisting of seven questions every parent should ask of their kids’ school before sending them there. 

Meet the Spokespersons

Katie McCarthy

As the Director of Marketing for Protect Our Kids, Katie McCarthy has long been engaged in the culture wars to protect the unborn, traditional marriage and the nuclear family. After a successful career in direct response marketing, Katie left her position as Executive Vice President to homeschool her four children. During this time, Katie applied her marketing expertise to further the missions of several non-profit and political organizations. In her role at Protect Our Kids, Katie is devoted to sounding the alarm about the dangers in public education while helping them find alternative solutions.

Mark Schneider

As the President and Founder of Protect Our Kids, Mark Schneider has a passion for American ideals as put forth by the founding fathers and believes parents bear the primary responsibility for teaching children values, not the state. A native Californian, Mark spent most of his career in Silicon Valley serving as managing director and corporate counsel for Hewlett-Packard company before going into private practice as a Patent Litigator. In response to California’s Proposition 8, Mark founded a public policy ministry in 2008 at his local church before founding Protect Our Kids in 2019. He is married with two adult, home-schooled, children.

Suggested Interview Questions

  1. Can you offer some background on Protect Our Kids and how the organization got started?
  2. Protect Our Kids has a number of helpful resources to support its mission of informing and empowering parents in their role as primary educators of their children.  Can you discuss some of these resources?
  3. As a new school year begins, you’ve created a guide for parents with seven questions you feel are of utmost importance for parents to seek answers to.  Are you able to share with our audience some of the issues addressed in this guide?  
  4. What advice do you have for parents struggling to navigate the current landscape of the public school system in their own areas?
  5. How can concerned parents access this Back-to-School guide and tap into additional resources to get involved and learn more? 

Media Requests

Contact Carrie Kline at carriek@revolutionizingmissions.com for interview requests.

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