America’s
Issues
Elections
More Secure
In early January 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decried efforts by state governments to protect voters from election fraud, likening them to the protest at the U.S. Capitol the year before.
“What the Republicans are doing across the country,” she said, “is really a legislative continuation of what they did on Jan. 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of a democracy.”
None of what Pelosi said is true. What is true is that Heritage played a key role in providing the data and the policy proposals behind those bills, educating state leaders on their merits, and defending them against unfair attacks like those uttered by Pelosi. As the New York Times reported early in 2021, “Of the 68 bills pertaining to voting, at least 23 had similar language or were firmly rooted in the principles laid out in the Heritage group’s … extensive report.” The sponsor of an Arizona reform bill, the Times went on, thanked Heritage “in a Facebook post after it passed.”
Election integrity is a prime example of how we put ideas into action. For years, Heritage has led the charge both in exposing the reality of election fraud—our comprehensive Election Fraud Database includes more than 1,300 proven cases of it—and in promoting solutions. Our experts meet regularly with secretaries of state, are interviewed widely by the mainstream press, and publish extensively on the topic. Heritage’s lobbying organization, Heritage Action for America, has been extremely active lobbying for reforms in key battleground states where the temptation to commit fraud is greatest.
At the end of 2021, your support helped us take our fight to the next level with the first-ever Election Integrity Scorecard—one of the most important research products Heritage has published. This interactive tool ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia on how well their election laws protect the sanctity of votes. The scorecard reflects all stages of the electoral cycle from registration to voter/electoral certification. Importantly, it also includes model bills for shoring up election vulnerabilities under 12 identified categories.
As it turns out, almost all of the states at the bottom of the election integrity list are left-leaning ones, which might help explain why the left is so adamant that election fraud is a myth.
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, put it best: “Americans need and deserve a system in which it is easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
That’s a sentiment that everyone—left, right, and center—should agree on. With the scorecard, we are providing the lever to grassroots activists, state legislators, and to you and your neighbors to fix your state election laws.
Every citizen’s vote is sacred. Voting is how we guarantee that our government remains of the people, by the people, and for the people. In order to help voters, state legislators, election officials, and all Americans who are interested in ensuring a fair and secure election process, The Heritage Foundation published the Election Integrity Scorecard, which compares the election laws and regulations of each state that affect the security and integrity of the process to Heritage’s best-practices recommendations. Find out where your state ranks.
of Choice
In Education
Freedom of
Choice In
Education
Last year was eye-opening for anyone who cares about the future of this nation, as COVID exposed to millions of parents—and grandparents—just how callous public schools had become.
They saw how indifferent schools were to the needs of children, how beholden to teachers’ unions they were, and, worst of all, how many were run by leftist bureaucrats who’d turned schools into indoctrination camps bent on undermining your values.
This realization led to a widely covered revolt in Virginia, where parents elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years, and it caused parents across the country who could afford it to put their children in private schools or homeschool them.
But it also prompted a sweeping education reform in West Virginia that got much less attention, yet will empower every family in the state to fight back. It’s a reform that your support of Heritage was directly responsible for making a reality.
Here, briefly, is how it came about.
In 2016, Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in education, published the first report to ever make the case for a reform in West Virginia, called education savings accounts. He followed that report up with additional research and testimony before the West Virginia House of Delegates. Butcher continued to actively work with the Cardinal Institute, a conservative think tank in the state, to promote the idea.
ESAs—an idea that originated with Heritage scholars—aren’t like school vouchers, which parents can only use at another school. These savings accounts bring true freedom to families, because they can use the funds to pay tutors, cover homeschooling costs, and other education services specific to their child.
In the spring of 2021, all that spadework paid off. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill enacting the most sweeping education choice plan in the country. Starting this fall, all families with students currently enrolled in public schools will be able to access up to $4,600 of state education funds if they decide to seek other options.
That means starting in the fall of 2022, no West Virginia child will have to remain stuck in a school that fails to meet their needs. No parent will be forced to watch their tax dollars used to undermine their values. Teachers’ unions will no longer be able to hold West Virginia families hostage.
“Parents have a right to be in control of their children’s education,” says Lindsey Burke, Ph.D., director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy and the Mark A. Kolokotrones fellow in education. “West Virginia has shown that this can be a reality.”
So how do we expand education freedom to the rest of the country?
With your support, Heritage in 2022 is undertaking a game-changing product, tentatively called the Index of Education Freedom, which will rank states based on several measures of freedom, from school choice opportunities, state regulations, open enrollment at public schools, and more.
With this publication, we will be arming you, your neighbors, and parents across the country with the unassailable facts they need to demand change.
Schools at all levels have been on a hiring binge lately. No, they aren’t hiring more teachers or professors. To keep up with the never-ending demands of the “woke” crowd, educators have been adding “diversity, equity, and inclusion” staff.
Jay Greene, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at the Center for Education Policy, documented this trend with research showing how many DEI staff are employed by colleges and K-12 schools around the country, and what, exactly, this bureaucratic bloat accomplishes.
The results have been nothing short of jaw-dropping. At the 65 universities Greene studied, DEI staff outnumbered history professors by almost 2 to 1. The University of Michigan has 5.8 diversity officials for every 100 faculty members.
Greene turned all this data into an interactive database that lets you see just how much DEI bloat there is at your alma mater.
Greene followed this up with a study looking at “chief diversity officers” at public K-12 schools and found that 79 percent of school districts with 100,000 or more students now have a CDO.
But all this DEI bloat is doing nothing to improve student satisfaction at colleges or reduce gaps between black and white children in public schools, Greene found.
Worse still, Greene found a shockingly high degree of antisemitism among the very people whose job it is to make these institutions more tolerant and more inclusive.
Greene’s work sparked a wave of news coverage, with the New York Post’s editorial board saying: “Kudos to the Heritage Foundation worker who pinned down crystal-clear evidence of ugly bias among those pushing ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”
Read more about Greene’s work exposing DEI bloat: Universities Bloated with ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ Staff.
Kudos to The Heritage Foundation worker who pinned down crystal-clear evidence of ugly bias among those pushing ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’
Threat of
Communist China
Threat of
Communist
China
While the left kept its head buried in the sand, The Heritage Foundation was actively working on your behalf to expose the increasing threats posed by Communist China to its own people, to the region, to the United States, and to freedom-loving people everywhere.
“China represents the single biggest challenge to American interests in the world,” said Asian Studies Center Director Walter Lohman. By the end of the year, China’s malignant behavior was apparent to everyone with eyes to see.
You helped us point out the fact that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members had infiltrated a host of U.S. universities and businesses and that supposedly private Chinese companies were effectively arms of the CCP. You kept the public aware of China’s increasingly aggressive and belligerent actions in the region, particularly against Taiwan, and its serial lies about COVID-19.
As China continues its rise, the actions of the Chinese Communist Party have implications across the globe. The need for transparency is increasingly important. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP has often withheld, obfuscated, and falsified data for its own purposes. In this podcast, Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Olivia Enos hosts representatives of world-class data projects to discuss how their projects are shining a spotlight on the CCP’s actions and emerging trends from their data.
Find “China Uncovered” and other Heritage podcasts at The Heritage Foundation Podcast Network.
Your support also produced a vital new resource last year called the China Transparency Report. This comprehensive guide helps policymakers assess the current state of the CCP’s global ambitions. China’s lack of transparency in these areas is a significant problem, one that isn’t likely to change. So, to help fill this gap, the report collects data from dozens of partner organizations worldwide.
“To address China effectively,” Lohman explained, “policymakers—as well as the public—need the best information available. We’ve worked with dozens of organizations around the world to bring it all under one cover.”
Above all, where you clearly had an influence was on the issue of China’s horrific abuse of the Uyghur people and the need for the U.S. to forcefully respond to it. Few experts wrote as widely or as passionately about the plight of the Uyghurs as Olivia Enos, senior policy analyst at the Asian Studies Center. Last spring, the U.S. Commission on International Freedom called on Enos to testify about the horrific human rights abuses and genocide facing the Uyghurs, and in October, she testified again—this time before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
In part because of her work, Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., introduced the bipartisan “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” in the House last year, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a version of that bill in the Senate. At Rubio’s urging, the bill passed both houses, despite the deplorable efforts by the Biden administration to block it. The president didn’t want the bill to disrupt its climate talks with Beijing. Enos called the new law “a direct, necessary response to some of the CCP’s most evil behavior, and also to the lackluster use of existing tools by the Biden administration.”
At Heritage, having an impact on events doesn’t just mean advancing the right public policies. It can also mean using our talent, skills, and experience to save lives—literally. In his new book, “Winning in a Socially Networked World,” James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and the E.W. Richardson fellow, recounts how he leveraged his long list of worldwide contacts to help hundreds who were desperately trying to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took over. The following is excerpted from the book’s prologue.
It all started with an email from an old friend and mentor who served on the board of the Center for International Private Enterprise. His request was, “Help.”
Afghanistan was a half-a-world away in an opposite time zone, mired in absolute chaos and conflict. Helping from a computer in Washington, D.C., seemed a forlorn hope. But, when friends ask—you answer.
Riffling through my Outlook contact list produced about a half-dozen email addresses of non-governmental organization representatives, former government officials, journalists, policy analysts, activists, and retired military—a wish list of folks who I figured might know something, someone, or have a clue of whom to ask.
To my great surprise, the emails triggered a small hyperactive network, folks rushing to save lives before it was too late.
In less than a day, what became a global network of volunteers, many of whom didn’t know each other before the crisis, effectively linked federal agencies, foreign governments, NGOs like Spirit of America, commercial charter plane companies, special forces veterans, a former yoga instructor, philanthropists, journalists, random do-gooders, a well-known writer of spy and political thrillers, and all kinds of other folks from all over the country, all over the world.
What these folks achieved was extraordinary. The collapse of Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban, and the haphazard withdrawal were a humiliating setback for the U.S. government. If not, however, for the incredible individual efforts of so many, from so many countries, assisting in the evacuation, the disaster could have been far worse.
There is no question that some people got help who likely would now be dead if not for the chance connections of emails flying across the internet.
for Life
Abortion is an issue that many public policy organizations—including some that identify as conservative—would prefer to ignore.
However, at Heritage, we recognize that every human life, born and unborn, has innate dignity and value and is worthy of protection. To ignore the plight of the most innocent in our society is simply unconscionable.
With your support, The Heritage Foundation has spoken out boldly in defense of life and fought for policies that protect both mothers and their babies.
One area in the fight for life where your efforts have made considerable impact is in the courts. For the first time since 1973 (when the unjust and misguided Roe v. Wade decision was handed down), America has a chance to right the many wrongs abortion-on-demand has brought to our country. The Dobbs case, currently being considered by the court, is the most significant chance to shift pro-life policy in over four decades.
This is only possible because you were instrumental in getting Justice Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court, replacing the liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg and giving conservatives a clear majority on the court. Our legal experts recommended Barrett as a potential candidate to President Trump. Following her nomination, Heritage worked to educate the public and Congress on Barrett’s character and judicial beliefs and expose the lies told by her critics. Heritage experts produced dozens of op-eds, held events, and even launched a seven-figure ad campaign to promote her confirmation. Without your advocacy for conservative justices, it is unlikely the Dobbs case would have ever been heard by the court.
No matter the outcome of the Dobbs case, which at this writing still hasn’t been decided, we will continue your fight for life on a multitude of fronts, especially at the state level. Heritage Policy Analyst Melanie Israel spoke at a rally for Dobbs outside the Supreme Court in December. Heritage saw a bill introduced in Congress that reflected our work—Protecting Life on College Campus Act of 2021 (H.R.4607). Meanwhile, seven states (Montana, Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, North Dakota, Arizona, and Arkansas) took steps administratively or legislatively to strengthen regulation of abortion pills, an issue you helped bring to life and on which we worked with a national coalition to develop model legislation.
The right to life is precious and inalienable, and you can trust that The Heritage Foundation will not rest until it is protected in law.
Critical
Race Theory
Imagine an ideology that tells your child that, simply because of their skin color, they are an oppressor, who is guilty of serious injustices against groups of people going back generations.
Or, this ideology might tell your child that, because of their skin color, they are a victim, destined to fail because an unfair society will never let them succeed.
If this ideology sounds familiar to you, it’s because it has already spread throughout our country. It’s called critical race theory (CRT), and you are helping The Heritage Foundation to defeat it wherever we can.
At its core, CRT is a Marxist ideology that has seeped into many of America’s public institutions. It’s especially pervasive in America’s schools, where the campaign to rewrite history and depict the U.S. as irredeemably racist is the fiercest. Its goal isn’t to end racism but to remake our society to fit the leftist agenda and reintroduce racial discrimination into our culture.
By supporting Heritage, you were an early and outspoken opponent of critical race theory, and you fearlessly fought back with the truth. Together, we used the breadth of our expertise in law, education policy, history, policy formulation, storytelling, convening, and investigative reporting to expose CRT for what it really is.
You also went on offense in this fight and took the battle right to the states. Over the past year, Heritage policy experts helped draft model legislation to protect state institutions and K-12 schools from CRT.
In 2021, Heritage senior fellows Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez both testified about the nature of CRT before the Louisiana state legislature while Gonzalez also testified before the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the U.S. House of Representatives. Butcher and Gonzalez crisscrossed the country speaking on this issue to legislators, universities, conservative allies, education associations, and parent groups.
The Heritage Foundation also hosted a major event highlighting the dangers of CRT, “The New Intolerance: Critical Race Theory and Its Grip on America,” and Butcher published a new book, “Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth,” which makes clear how CRT has hijacked the U.S. education system.
As of this writing, 26 state legislatures have introduced bills to remove critical race theory from their state institutions and K-12 schools.
We also published an e-book on CRT: Critical Race Theory: Knowing It When You See It & Fighting It When You Can and thanks to your help, we have distributed thousands of copies of this e-book to educate voters on how to spot CRT in their communities.
As part of Heritage, you were a leader in the fight against CRT, especially through a creative, sustained, and aggressive media strategy.
When NBC’s Brandy Zadrozny attacked Heritage for our role in supporting the anti-CRT movement and criticized parents for filing FOIA requests with their school districts, we executed a rapid-response campaign on social media, tweeting the video in a comprehensive thread taking down her claims.
The video and our response received hundreds of thousands of views and generated numerous stories, including in Fox News, The Federalist, and Daily Wire. The response was critical in showing the elitism of CRT proponents.
The National Education Association also attacked Heritage by name because of our CRT work, to which we hit back with social media posts that drew massive media attention, including coverage on Education Week, Newsmax, Ben Shapiro Show, Fox News, National Review, Epoch Times, Daily Caller, and more. It also prompted several days of negative coverage for the teachers’ union.
And when the NEA tried to scrub the item from its website, we caught them red-handed and made another news cycle out of it.
These initiatives alone resulted in 164 broadcast hits and 336 print mentions in 2021. It’s a case study in how, with Heritage, you are always on offense against the radical left’s agenda.