This week, a letter became available for paying members of the Independent Women’s Network, a non-profit organization that has received donations from the Koch family of billionaire conservatives.
People can put their name and their child’s name into the letter, which pleads for mask mandates to be dropped from classrooms. It was made available Tuesday on the network, which is part of the independent Women’s Forum.
“I want to share my thoughts on a topic I feel strongly about: masks on kids. I do not believe little kids should be forced to wear masks, and I urge you to adopt a policy that allows parental choice on this matter for the upcoming school year,” it reads.
According to the Washington Post, the letter points to efforts of “organized activists whose influence is ordinarily veiled.”
Independent Women’s Forum CEO Heather Higgins, an heiress to the Vicks VapoRub fortune, did not respond to a request for comment about the letter to the outlet.
However, organization President Carrie Lukas said in an interview the letter was originally authored by the group’s policy director for their child’s Denver preschool. The policy director did not consult experts to write the letter, Lukas said.
The group decided to circulate the letter to “empower people to have a kind, civil conversation,” she said. Lukas is a co-author of a Sept.
28 post in the network’s “Resource Center” explaining the purpose of the letter, said the Washington Post. In it she encouraged parents to “push back” against mandates, which are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
So far, it isn’t clear how widely the letter has been used so far by members of the network, which requires members to pay between $5 and $25 per month for access.
In 2019, the Independent Women’s Forum had total reported revenues of $3.8 million. Apart from membership fees, the group has said they have drawn support from Charles Koch and his late brother David. Tax records and other statements confirm this, as well as a statement that Charles Koch was a major benefactor, said the Post. As a nonprofit, the group is not required to disclose donors or pay federal income taxes.
Other confirmed donors to the group include Facebook, the Walton Family Foundation and Amway fortune heir Dick DeVos, husband of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Bill Riggs, a spokesman for the Charles Koch Institute and other philanthropic and advocacy organizations tied to the billionaire, said the group’s financial support for Independent Women’s Forum was steered toward a program opposing occupational and labor regulations. Representatives for other benefactors did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Post.
The outlet says the Koch connection runs deep. For example, the Independent Women’s Forum announced that it was formally affiliating with Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network’s main political arm, in 2003. The two groups even shared office space.
Lukas said the affiliation ended in 2005 and that the connection to Koch is “relatively minor”. She was a former policy analyst for the Cato Institute, which was first founded as the Charles Koch Foundation.
Most parents support mask mandates at schools, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommend that all children under age 12 wear masks when in public places, as vaccines for COVID-19 are not yet approved for children that young.
This summer, the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus caused a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19, mostly among the unvaccinated.
Despite these factors, opposition to mask mandates has been a hot button issue for local school boards since before the school year even began.
According to the Washington Post, school board meetings have erupted in violence and arrests. Some conservative governors, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, want to prohibit schools from putting mask mandates in place.
David Kimberlin, a physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, thinks the recent letter is dangerous. He said “political ideology, instead of data, will cause more deaths, more funerals and more white flags on the National Mall.”
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