Provoked local conflict itself is a deliberate strategy to discredit public education

Evidence

I soon discovered that this network was itself just one of many initiatives to insert reactionary religion into public schools across the country. Then I realized that these initiatives were the fruit of a nationally coordinated effort not merely to convert other people’s children in the classroom but to undermine public education altogether. Belatedly, I understood that the conflict they provoked in our local community—I was hardly the only parent who found their presence in the public school alarming—was not an unintended consequence of their activity. It was of a piece with their plan to destroy confidence in our system of education and make way for a system of religious education more to their liking. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 21

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Base Nation and A Mission to Civilize discussions of how institutional actors intentionally manufacture controversy/discord as an organizing tactic rather than suffering it as a cost.