The Freedom to Learn Collective emerged from a six-month Spencer Vision grant that convened 35 stakeholders—including educational researchers, litigators, legislative advocates, educators, union leaders, and parent and youth organizers—working to combat right-wing extremism in education, particularly across the South and Midwest. Together, they co-designed a coordinated research agenda and resource guide for practitioners to defend against policies that threaten to narrow, censor, distort, defund, and dismantle systems of belonging and free thought, and advance educational justice. The Collective continues to meet to disseminate resources, develop rapid-response research briefs, and conduct new research on the emergence and consequence of right-wing extremism in education.
