Today’s episode of The State of Education tells the story of KrisAnne Hall. She is an experienced author and speaker who champions the U.S. Constitution with a passion and fervor you don’t see everyday. Hall and her husband run an organization that focuses on educating American citizens about their government and the power of the people so that they can live well, vote well, and reclaim our culture for good.
Resources mentioned on today’s episode
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– WHAT IS THE NOAH WEBSTER EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION? –
Noah Webster Educational Foundation collaborates with individuals and organizations to tell the story of America’s education and culture; discover foundational principles that improve it; and advance practice and policy to change it.
Today’s episode of The State of Education tells the story of KrisAnne Hall. She is an experienced author and speaker who champions the U.S. Constitution with a passion and fervor you don’t see everyday. Hall and her husband run an organization that focuses on educating American citizens about their government and the power of the people so that they can live well, vote well, and reclaim our culture for good.
Resources mentioned on today’s episode
GET CONNECTED WITH NWEF
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nwef.org/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NWEF_org
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nwef_org/
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtdHayyOqPftVoiGEqxYdsg
To hear more from NWEF, subscribe to our other podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1898310
– WHAT IS THE NOAH WEBSTER EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION? –
Noah Webster Educational Foundation collaborates with individuals and organizations to tell the story of America’s education and culture; discover foundational principles that improve it; and advance practice and policy to change it.
KrisAnne Hall Interview Transcript
[00:00-45:42]
ADAMS: My guest today on The State of Education is KrisAnne Hall. She is an author and attorney. And it’s a delight to have her join us today. KrisAnne, welcome.
HALL: Thank you so much. The pleasure is definitely mine.
ADAMS: Well, it’s a mutual pleasure. Today, we want to talk a little bit about some of the challenges that parents and educators are facing in the present educational climate, particularly from a legal point of view.
But before we go there, KrisAnne, would you mind telling us more about yourself? The things that got you interested and involved in practicing law and in defending liberty?
HALL: Well, I’ve held many positions. I was a biochemist, I was a Russian linguist in the U.S. Army and when I finished my term with the U.S. Army I went to law school. And in law school, I really became interested in the constitution of the United States and the area of constitutional law.
I had started law school with the specific purpose of becoming a prosecutor for the state of Florida. It’s a job that I really wanted to do. It’s really the only job I wanted to do. And I also already knew that I have that job waiting for me when I got out of law school because I knew the prosecutor of our small town.
And being in a small town, not many people want to live in small towns like that where the pay is not really commensurate with the education. It is difficult for them to find people once they actually come along. So it was really a passion for me to be a prosecutor.
And I began that job after law school. I started reading some books about the founders of America. I read a book called The Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, and I read a book called 1776 by David McCullough.
And it really grew my interest in the people themselves. So I began combining my interest in the people, of the history, and of the constitution itself by reading The Federalist Papers, The Anti-Federalist Papers, The Ratification Debates, all of the communications that they had with each other surrounding the creation, the writing, the debate, the ratification, and their intentions for the proper application of the U.S. Constitution.
And it was through that study that I began to realize that what I was taught in law school didn’t remotely reflect the truth about the constitution of the United States and what its intention is and how it’s supposed to actually operate.
And I think that, in light-hearted terms, really poked at the inner rebel in me. And it made me upset that in law school where I really was interested in Constitutional issues and law, I was actually being taught the wrong things.
I began speaking to other attorneys like me and other law schools are exactly the same way. And so I began to teach what I had learned to civic groups around my local area. I began to teach about the first amendment and the rights associated with the first amendment, even in middle and high schools.
And I was told by my boss, at the time at the state attorney’s office, that to teach that the constitution required limited government was an ethical conflict for me because I worked for the government. So somehow implying that because I was employed in government, ethically speaking I had to advocate for unlimited, unconstitutional government authority.
And I knew that was not true. And then he gave me an ultimatum and told me I had to cease and desist from associating with anyone, on my own time, that he didn't approve of. And that was sort of throwing down the gauntlet for me, right?
And so after a long term of prayer and discussion with my husband, we decided that we were not going to give in to his demands and I told him that he did not give me my rights, these are God-given rights, and I was not going to trade them for his paycheck.
So he told me I had to quit. I refused to quit and he fired me. And I believe that’s what man meant for evil but God meant for good because it launched me out into what we do now: a ministry in defense of the constitution of the United States which has now begun to, over the last 2 years, a defense of the constitution of each state, traveling and teaching people what these documents actually mean, not what they’re interpreted to mean.
And the fact that actually understanding the meaning and application is attainable. It’s not something you have to discover by a secret map on the back of the Declaration of Independencein some spider-web-ridden basement in the hall of documents somewhere.
It’s actually available, it’s actually out there, it’s actually published. And it is readily available and easily understood. And that’s what we do. And for going on 13 years now; traveling the country and teaching these things from middle to high school, to colleges, I’ve taught the legislators of 11 states in session.
I have taught sheriff’s deputies and police officers from representations of all 50 states, I have been teaching locally: the county commissioner and city council persons. And I’ve written 6 books on the constitution.
We have an online, video-based, learn-at-your-own-pace, American History and Constitution civics. We have a platform that teachers as well called libertyfirstsociety.com. And I do interviews, I’m a contributor on Victory News and Flash Point on a regular basis, along with several other forums.
And this is our mission now, so that’s kind of a long story but it really is what it took to get us where we are today.
ADAMS: So it sounds like you got pushed out of the nest.
HALL: Yes, definitely. And in reality, being “pushed out of my nest” is one thing, but I don’t regret any of it, right? I don’t because we have been hugely, largely, unfathomably blessed by what we’re doing. And we have watched lives change.
I mean, not just on an individual level, but on a government level and a statewide level. We have seen people run for office that never even thought of running before. We have made an impact, although you won’t see it on mainstream media and you won’t hear many politicians talk about it, but what the Lord has allowed us and empowered us to do is eternity changing.
ADAMS: Well here’s the interesting thing. It’s very easy for people—just everyday citizens—to get a job, do their thing, punch the clock in and out every day, kinda go through life and do the thing that they signed up for.
But what we’re finding is that there are growing numbers of people, willing or unwilling, being pushed out of their comfort zones and proverbial nests. And particularly, I’m going to talk a little bit here about parents but also educators. Who are finding themselves in legal battles over their authority over their children and the influence that schools are having on their children’s lives.
Let’s talk about these things. So for a while, it was mask mandates: some places are saying that those are going to be returning at the beginning of the school year. Certainly, there was the whole issue of school closures because of COVID. People can argue up and down one side or the other on that issue.
But now, significant issues that include pornographic conent in textbooks and in school textbooks, school libraries, and especially the involvement of secret gender consultations with children at school. And these are terrifying situations for parents and children. So let’s talk about this stuff for a little bit. Are you involved in anything in that space?
HALL: Oh absolutely. We do consultations with many people: from parents to county commissioners, to city councilmen, to school boards all the time. And we try to help people navigate the system as it is. With an understanding that Americans have unique access to inherent school choice.
And I know that’s sort of a buzzword these days (school choice) but our position is that Americans have school choice. We don’t need legislative action to establish school choice. You don’t have to send your child to a government school. You can send your child to a private school, or a religious private school, or you can homeschool your child in America.
This is not Germany where you go to prison for homeschooling. So in America, it’s really about choice and priorities. It’s about how parents value the lives, minds, and education of their children. And how do they prioritize within the aspect of their lives?
We’ve heard all the arguments about the convenience, and availability of homeschooling. But in reality, in America, it has never been easier to homeschool your children. As a matter of fact, most parents don’t realize that if you actually homeschool your child, it’s only about 3 or 4 hours out of the day that homeschooling actually takes place.
And in those 3-4 hours, you get a superior educational experience for your children than in any other educational platform you can find. There are so many ways to homeschool, that parents think, “Well I’m not qualified to homeschool, there’ll be subjects that I don’t know.”
Well in reality you don’t even have to be the teacher anymore if you homeschool. There are so many digital online platforms that have qualified (sometimes even overqualified) instructors. I’m thinking of Ron Paul’s curriculum. Their K-12 instructors are just phenomenal.
The instruction that we give at libertyfirstsociety.com to supplement American history, constitution, civics, and applications, it’s really difficult to find fault now in the American homeschool education programs. Because you can go and find them.
ADAMS: Yeah, that’s certainly true. There are so many things that have, even in the last 10 years, grown to be phenomenal opportunities and resources. It’s just amazing. Let’s talk for just a little bit though about these situations. Particularly, let’s zero in on the whole library textbook and transgender consultation and the secrecy that’s going on with that.
So here’s a question I have: Are these situations driven by state or federal laws? Or are they activist mandates made by state or federal agencies and their unelected bureaucrats?
HALL: There’s a little bit of all three within the answer to that question. First and foremost, we need to understand the history of the U.S. Department of Education Program which started as the general education board in 1907.
And we must understand that prior to 1907, the building of the compulsory education system in America began with a Marxist education program. On my website KrisAnneHall.com, I have an article called, Stolen education, stolen children, stolen future that points out the timeline and players who are the founders of the American public education system.
And these are Wilhelm Wundt, G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey, Thorndyke. These are all Marxists. Our American education system is not built on the premise of education. The American education system, public school, is built on behavioral psychology.
ADAMS: Right.
HALL: And it’s all about how do we train up generations of people? This is actually published by the first Director of Education Board. That “We need to train up a generation of docile citizens that yield to our ever-commanding hand.” So the government education system in America was designed as an educational laboratory to program people to operate in a particular way within society.
It did not begin by teaching children these principles. They began by taking over the higher education systems that write the textbooks to train the teachers up. They understood that this was a long-term goal: maybe a hundred years or more they believed would pass before they saw the actual fruits of their labors.
And so the government education system is working exactly the way it was designed. It is not broken. It is doing exactly what it was created to do. So we don’t need to restore the American government education system, we need to rewrite it if we are going to keep our children in a government education system.
And what we’re seeing today with textbooks and the extracurricular books that are being pushed is all a product of over a hundred and fifteen years of development. Within that development was the plan to remove parents from the education system and replace them with the government.
And this is where you get into the real legal quagmire. Because over these 117 years plus, we’ve allowed the court systems to designate the government schools under the term of “in loco parentis.” This means, legally speaking, the school system is the parent of the child while the child is in the school.
Initially, this designation was created so that in case of emergency the school could act in the unavailability, in the case of emergency, for the parent on behalf of the child. But over many, many years what has happened legally over the years, is we’ve allowed schools to creep in new definitions in which they are actually replacing the parent, legally, in the school.
And that’s part of the design, right? To replace parents with education, which government agencies. Actually teaching children that they should not trust their parents, teaching children that the government knows best. And here’s the big thing, and this goes out to the Christians who are out there maybe listening to this, government school is incompatible with a Christian ideology.
Because the government school system is designed to teach that government is the provider and protector and that the government is god. Government education cannot teach that God is all these things because it undermines the power of government and contradicts the purpose of government education.
So all of these things come into play: the Department of Education, by statute, is not allowed to dictate curriculum, school practice, or school employment. However, when the Department of Education gives funding to our schools as a caveat, they say, “If you accept our funding, you have to accept our dictates.”
That’s how the school systems get roped into these mandates. We also have these Marxist education mandates seeping into our state departments of education and now even at the county level. Because the parents are no longer involved, the parents no longer have a say.
And to be totally honest, parents have removed themselves from the education system out of convenience or justifications of time or anything like that. So turning this ship around is going to be a very difficult thing. But not impossible.
ADAMS: Well that’s for sure. It didn’t get this way overnight and it’s not going to change overnight. But lemme ask you this. Let’s talk a little bit about parents’ rights. The supreme court for a number of years has passed several different laws that clearly state that a parent’s right is really supreme.
It overrides the will of the state and the schools. There are just a number of different cases there. And I don’t know if you’re all up on those. Not really to state all of those specifically right now.
But talk to us a little bit about that because with that supreme court ruling and standing, how should parents (with an understanding that they ultimately have the top rights when it comes to decisions for their children) respond in order to protect themselves, and more importantly, their children when it comes to these issues that are going on in school?
Not only with the curriculum, but specifically the things that are so alarming here in recent times. With the pornography, with this whole transgender therapy and all that stuff that is going on across the country. Talk to our parents out there.
HALL: Well parents should respond boldly with confidence. Because since the beginning of legal time, not just in America but since the beginning of legal time, as our supreme court puts it, “Parents have the ultimate authority over the care, custody, and control of their child.” That’s the legal language: care, custody, control.
Again, the complication comes in now that parents, having removed themselves and sort of abdicated authority to the government schools for whatever reason (for many, many, many decades). Remember parent-teacher organizations used to be
the parents sitting down with the school board and the parents sitting down with the teachers and discussing curriculum and agreeing or disagreeing with curriculum.
But for many decades now the PTO (the parent-teacher organization) has been relegated to nothing but fundraisers. And that’s what the parents have allowed. We must take responsibility first for our abdication of authority over our children in the public school system.
But we also must understand that it will not change until parents step up and take back what is rightly theirs. Now, remember the complication comes legally with this whole designation of in loco parentis. And the court recognized the authority of the school to declare an emergency situation and supersede the authority of the parent. And that’s what we need to change legally.
So if we’re going to be active parents, we need to take back what we’ve abdicated, we need to address these school boards with confidence, with boldness. We need to be educated as parents when we discuss these things with them and not back down or backpedal simply because we are confronted with something we don’t know or we don’t understand.
So remember that from the beginning of legal time, parents have always been designated with a superior authority of the care, custody, and control of their child. Now they can turn that over by contract or whatever to the schools and that’s what has to be taken back.
But what we have to change with this in loco parentis is very important. Because as we have a society, that somehow adopts this ideology that children have an inalienable right at five years old to determine who they are sexually or in gender. Now, as a society, those in power determine that to be so. When a parent gets involved and says, “No, I don’t want my child to do that.”
What you have to understand now because society is established. That a child has this inherent right to make this decision—you create an emergency in which the school can take over and deny parental rights.
So if the society says they have the right to gender transformation, they have the right to gender designation, they have the right to whatever, and the parent disagrees, then the school can come in and say, “You’re denying this child their right. And now I have an emergency obligation to defend that right.”
And the next thing you know, you’ve got the children and families of that state removing authority and custody from the parents. The same thing goes with mandates. From the beginning of vaccinations, we have always recognized in most jurisdictions that there is a religious exemption component to children in public schools regarding vaccinations.
ADAMS: And not just children, actually. Any individual. Yeah.
HALL: Yes, exactly. But as we allow the government to manufacture these emergencies, now we have an emergency and we’re interfering with the rights of the child—you have a situation now where the state can come and take custody of the children.
And so the solution to this problem has to come from the parents. And it has to come from a bold, firm position through persistence. You can’t be in and out. You can’t have one foot on this line and one foot on that line. You’ve got to be all about being the parent of your child all the time.
Because once you flip-flop back and forth, then you’ve set up the real camel’s nose in the tent for the government to take it. Now, I do feel obligated to assert once again that no person in America at this time is required to send their child to a government school.
I’m not opposed to re-writing the system the way it needs to run, but in the meantime, we should understand as parents that we don’t have an obligation to keep our children in the system while it’s doing what it’s doing to destroy the lives of our children.
I would speak to the outraged parent, I would speak to the parent that is fearful for their child. If you feel this, then you have an overriding obligation to the child, not to the system. To rescue that child from that system until such a time as it operates according to your conscience.
ADAMS: So when we’re talking about society embracing a child’s right, let’s say at 5 years old. Are you really talking about that from a legal perspective at the state legislature or is that from decisions made by judges? I’m asking this question because it’s probably kind of bouncing around in some people’s heads right now.
Where do their rights, per se, come from? Where do the rights of the minor supersede that of the parent when it comes to their decision regarding what is in their best interest or well-being in safety? And so talk to us just a little bit about that. Because I think understanding that is critical to know how to engage in making corrections there.
HALL: Yeah, that’s a really great question. And the underlying answer to that is an understanding of the proper role of government. And we have a whole class that we teach on the proper role of government and understanding what that is.
Basically, it’s written around the Declaration of Independence which it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
“And that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, driving their just power from the consent of the governed.” So that statement fundamentally teaches the founding of the proper role of all governments.
And at libertyfirstsociety.com we walk you through that understanding. And in that we must recognize that all political, and legal power, exists and comes from the people. And so when you ask me, “Where does it come from” what you’re asking is the chicken and egg question.
The truth of the matter is, no law is created without society first adopting that ideology, adopting that principle. No judge comes to a conclusion without first finding that conclusion in law or in society.
So the short-term solution to the problem, obviously, is to effect the laws. But the really long-term solution comes from affecting society. So we don’t need a revolution of the legal system, what we need is a revolution of the mind where we stop teaching these things to our children, we stop raising generations of people who behave and think in a completely incompatible way to the foundational principles of America.
And so remember, this Marxist system began in the mid-1800s. And so there’s been an open effort to undermine the foundational principles of America since the mid-1800s. And what we’re reaping now is what we’ve allowed to be sown over these years.
And we have to take the time and the effort as the Marxists knew was a long-term goal, maybe a hundred years or more, we as believers of fundamental American principles must now take on that long-term outlook as well and realize that if we do not rescue our children from this system if we do not teach them the truth to counteract these lies.
If we do not teach them to stand boldly in the truth, then no matter what we do legally, and legislatively, we can still end up raising a generation that we can correct today, but they will completely undo what we’ve done because they’ve been taught the wrong things their whole lives. It’s a cultural problem in reality.
ADAMS: I couldn’t agree more. So let me try to recap a few things here. What I think I’m hearing you say, is that the solution to these problems is first of all for parents to step up and take on their role as being the parent of the child seriously and consistently.
That means, knowing what’s going on, and making hard decisions because they are in the best interest of the child. Even if it is to take them out of a present school (government or not). What they’re being taught and the influences that are being leveraged upon them are not consistent with the parent’s teachings, beliefs, and values.
Then the parent needs to step up and remove that child from that influence first and then from that point, of course, work to secure—whether it’s through homeschooling or through other means of education—a better education for that child.
One that is consistent with their beliefs and their ambitions and desires for that child and what they believe to be in the best interest of the child and the society.
Then, and I don’t know that you stated this specifically, I think that’s the foundational thing. But, I think maybe reading in the tea leaves here a little bit, if we want to change culture, we want to change society so that our children have a healthy place to live, work, and grow their families, we cannot just remove ourselves from engagement in these cultural and social battles that are largely being fought in our schools.
We have to stay engaged and parents need to stay engaged in those battles and fight for core principles that they believe are foundational to a healthy society. Because if we don’t push back and work toward systematic and effective change, really reclaiming our education and culture, then our posterity isn’t going to be helped in the long term.
They are just being temporarily relieved from that exposure. But for a lifetime and beyond for generations, they are going to be impacted by it. Would you say that’s accurate?
HALL: I would, but I would also add this: the responsibility of the parent to vet what comes into the mind of the child never stops. So even if you use a homeschool program, if you go to a Christian school, you have to understand that all the textbooks have been tainted. They have been corrupted since the mid-1800s.
So I watch a curriculum being taught in Christian schools that is exactly the same as the curriculum that is taught in government schools but just “Christianized.” And I will also mention that there are many, many parents out there that don’t feel called to be the warrior and the champion against the school system, but they also need to understand that this is a political beast that must be flanked on all sides if we just concentrate on education.
But if we ignore who our legislators are, who our sheriff is our city council or county commissioners, then we can fix the education system, but then the legislative system will be constantly fighting against us. We need all of these things to be working as representative bodies of the people truly representing their ideological and social-based belief systems.
We must understand, also, that there are going to be groups of people who won’t agree with how we are and they have to have the liberty to establish their local governments based on their ideologies. And so we have to protect what is ours while we engage in the cultural change that may affect in a broader perspective.
One of the things that really is the downfall of the American political system is how uneducated Americans are when they go to the ballot box. Most people go to the ballot box and they’ve never even looked at the ballot until they actually sit down to do it.
And then they’re relegated to making decisions on politics based on whether they have an R or D by their name. And in that situation, the R or the D is corrupted as well. There are plenty of people pretending conservatives that are simply not. So much so that there is a political movement to infiltrate political parties with frauds.
A lot of times we refer to Republicans who act in a liberal way as a Rhino but we also understand that leftist ideology recruits people to run as Republicans to infiltrate. So it’s incumbent upon the people to do their homework about these candidates and only elect people that are constitutionally proficient and have the character to carry it through.
Anything less is just simply electing the lesser of two evils and we can no longer operate in that way. So we must be politically active. We must attend the city council meetings, we must attend the county commission meetings, we must be involved at the state level.
And we must have an active and daily relationship with our sheriffs. Because our sheriffs are the most important advocates for our constitutions and the rights of the people that exist in our American constitutional republic.
We actually have a documentary called Noncompliant, which you can watch a noncompliantmovie.com it teaches about the checks and balances on government authority. In October we’re going to be releasing a sequel to that documentary all about the authority and duty of the local sheriff to be a defender of the rights of the people, not a blind enforcer of laws and commands.
ADAMS: Interesting. Well, this has been an interesting session. I really appreciate your time and sharing with us today. As we wrap up, are there any final thoughts you might have for our audience? Either resources you would encourage them to check out to learn more? Or just some encouragement that you might give them?
HALL: The biggest encouragement that I have for the parents is that this is a battle that we can win. This is something that we can do. This is something that we have the power and the authority to be victorious. This is not a lost cause, America is not done, we’re not in a situation where everybody is lost, right? Where everything is lost.
As a matter of fact, I personally, over nearly 13 years of immersion in all of this, have never been more excited about the future of America than I am right now. One is because of the truth that revival can only come when people are under oppression.
And so the more people who recognize that there is a problem, the more people who enlist to create the solution and be a part of the solution. And we are at the point and it’s absolutely amazing. You have more social media power today than most mainstream media have with billion-dollar companies.
All of these things, the education that you need to effectuate these changes are at your fingertips, literally at your fingertips now more so than they’ve ever been. There are so many people out there. The 10th Amendment Center, Liberty First Society, Fee.org, you’ve got all of these organizations. Moms for Liberty, Moms for America.
So many organizations, so many platforms, and so many educational opportunities that there is a greater opportunity to be in these forums. To have the courage and the boldness that is founded in proper education.
ADAMS: Well KrisAnne, that’s been very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. Of course here at Noah Webster Educational Foundation, we are working hard to try to help reclaim America’s education and culture alongside many other organizations like the one that you’re a part of.
We focus on five basic areas that we believe are altogether the big stones that affect everything. The role of instruction, parents, government, faith, and morality, and budget appropriations. And so we’ve got a ton of content on our website, nwef.org.
And so we encourage our listeners to study, to prepare. And at the end of the day, all of us, KrisAnne, you’ve got resources, we’ve got resources, and our resources are really designed with this intention: to equip you the listener to make a change where you are. KrisAnne, you wanted to add something?
HALL: Yeah, I just want to mention to the people that are listening or watching, however obtaining this information, it’s important to not just be consumers. It’s important to also be participants. If you’re getting information from this forum then you should be supporting this forum financially.
What we do here is not without cost. And so we are… even in our Christian audience, we should understand that we have a Biblical command to give honor where honor is due and to pay man his due wages. And programs like this cannot actually survive without the listeners contributing back financially.
And so that’s how I would encourage people as well. If you want to help others help you, then make sure the organizations that you get information from you’re feeding back into so that they can continue what they’re doing and grow as well.
I hope I haven’t overstepped my bounds, but it's very strong… we have to stop operating as communist Christians and communist conservatives that think all this information is owed to us by entitlement for free. Nothing is free in America and we’ve got to support each other in these things.
ADAMS: Well said. Well, we’re excited to work alongside everybody that’s in this endeavor. We always remember this, we have to do what’s right for the kids first. So for all of you that are out there doing your best, thank you for listening to this episode of The State of Education today. And thank you, KrisAnne, for joining us.