Michele Morrow, a homeschooling mother who recently won the GOP nomination to lead public schools in North Carolina, pledged the return of “sound, basic public education” in an interview with Fox News Digital.
And her general election contest against Democrat Mo Green figures to be one of the most watched and politically charged races nationally this year.
A supporter of former President Trump who attended a rally outside the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, Morrow was no stranger to controversy when she ran in the March 5 GOP primary and defeated current North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt.
As she advances to the general election, Morrow outlined her promise to parents while her past social media posts that once roiled her unsuccessful 2022 campaign for the Wake County School Board once again resurface during her 2024 bid for statewide office.
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“I want to get back to sound, basic education. I want our children to be able to think, to be able to solve problems, to be able to overcome obstacles,” she told Fox News Digital. “If we talk to any of our neighbors that have come from other countries where they’ve lived under radical regimes, they understand the incredible benefit and blessing that it is to live in a nation where we have our religious freedoms.
Michele Morrow won the Republican primary for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction March 5, 2024. (Morrow 4 NC)
“And we also have the freedom as parents to choose education, to choose our medical decisions and everything within the school for our children. I will be an advocate for that. And people across the state understand that.
“I have a great appreciation for the opportunities in the United States of America, and I am proud to be a citizen of this great country,” she added. “I want that to be true of every person, every child, to understand the true history of our country as well as world history, to understand what an incredible blessing and responsibility it is to be a citizen in a free nation.”
She also criticized Green, the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools and general counsel for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, over his work as executive director of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which reportedly has invested $627 million in educational grants and other initiatives in North Carolina.
“It appears that there has been funding for very radical groups like Antifa and potentially BLM, as well as we are looking into the fact that he may have been funding drag queen story hours and things that have been divisive, even antisemitic protests,” Morrow said, adding her campaign was continuing its research into the funding.
“We cannot have somebody who does not believe that every person has the religious freedom to practice their religion as they desire, as well as believes that people should be divided by the color of their skin or defined by the color of their skin. That is not going to be helpful, and it’s going to be actually traumatic and going to cause more division and problems in North Carolina,” she added.
“And I would tell the voters, ‘If you are ready for a change in our school system, if you want to see academics put first, if you want our spending to start at the classroom and move its way up to the boardroom, and if you want politics out of our schools, then I am your only candidate. Because if you vote for my opponent, it’s going to be more of the same,'” she said.
“It’s going to be somebody that comes from the system that has broken the system. And so we need somebody that comes in with new ideas and fresh perspective and who’s going to be a hard worker that’s going to fight for the families of North Carolina.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Green’s campaign Thursday about the allegations but did not immediately hear back.
Morrow charged that the public school system has been increasingly “pushing a political agenda” that has divided children by race, religiously and politically, “impeding the unity that our children should experience in being in a school situation. It’s also impeding their understanding of using their gifts and talents in order to improve whatever community they end up in after they’ve graduated,” she said.
Morrow vowed to transition to a strong civics education in North Carolina public middle schools and high schools and praised Ben Carson’s curriculum, developed for kindergarten through fifth graders, “that talks about just the history of the United States, and that is to talk about all of the history.”
“I think we need to talk about the things that we have done well, as well as the things that we have done very poorly and learn from those,” Morrow said. “I believe that no one should be defined. Nor should their future be determined by the color of their skin.
“I want to get back to focusing on math and reading and science and history,” she said. “I want to raise the bar of expectation, whether that’s in conduct or whether that’s in academic performance. And I have a plan to do that. I want to see that our schools, as I said, are incredibly safe, that they’re places of peace and order and civility, where our young people actually learn self-control, and they learn to be hard workers and to overcome, with help from others, the obstacles that lie in their path. I think that the people are going to see that I bring a message of hope. I bring solutions to a broken system.”
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On concern about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) trickling down into the public education system, Morrow said she believed the “role of the educational system should be to help every single student to reach their fullest potential, and, really, it shouldn’t have anything to do with their culture or with their race or with their gender for that matter.”
Despite homeschooling her own children, Morrow explained to Fox News Digital that she is a product of the North Carolina public school system, graduating from high school in Charlotte and graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received her nursing degree. She said her family made the decision to start homeschooling while living in Texas after experiencing issues getting her special needs daughter accommodations. And it has continued homeschooling on a year-by-year basis.
“I spent the last ten years teaching here in Wake County, teaching high schoolers, everything from biology, chemistry, civics, as well as Spanish,” Morrow said. “And those students also had been in the public school system, and their parents had chosen that the best option for them was going to be homeschool. So, I feel like I have been the change agent. I’ve been the answer to a failing system, not only for my family, but also for other families. And I want to change the system and make it be a viable option and an excellent option for every family in North Carolina.”
North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt lost narrowly March 5, 2024, in the Republican primary to Michele Morrow. (AP Photo/Bryan Anderson, File)
From traveling across the state, she said she learned a lack of discipline, consequences and expectations is a main concern for parents.
“I think if our students are not safe, then they’re not able to learn. And then it’s going to be focusing time, classroom time and our resources on academic excellence and preparing our kids to think critically,” she said.
While she promotes religious freedom and equality, Morrow’s 2022 school board race was mired by past social media posts in which she described Islam as a “cult.” She clarified during that race that she was referring to Islamic extremists.
When asked if she wanted to address her past social media posts about Islam, Morrow said she was “honored to have the enthusiastic support of parents and families across North Carolina of every race, religion and creed because everyone understands that when we have politically charged, racially divisive and sexually explicit content and agendas that are in our schools, it is dangerous to all of us.”
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On Wednesday, Morrow was confronted on camera after dark in the parking lot of the North Carolina GOP Convention by a CNN reporter, who demanded she respond to other resurfaced social media posts from 2020 in which she allegedly referred to wanting to see former President Obama put in front of a firing squad.
She also allegedly spoke of executing North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper; former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Hillary Clinton; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Joe Biden for treason. CNN also alleges Morrow is promoting QAnon conspiracies.
In a video message shared to X, Morrow addressed the incident, saying CNN reporters had been staked outside her home for days and then took it a step further in the parking lot.
“These three men ambushed and refused to allow us to reach our vehicle until we answered a litany of their questions. This is completely inappropriate. It’s unsafe, and it will not be tolerated,” Morrow said. “Do you wonder why reporters from New York City are down here stalking me and demanding that I answer their questions about education in North Carolina? It’s because they’re trying to interfere in the 2024 election, just like they did in the 2020 election. If these people truly cared about education, and about the things that the voters of North Carolina care about, they would be discussing the 800 failing schools that we have in our state.”
The post added, “CNN thinks they can choose who leads K-12 in NC by intimidating me and lying to you. It won’t work.”
Fox News Digital followed up with Morrow’s campaign on Thursday, asking about those posts and the related fiery exchange with CNN, but did not immediately hear back.
In the 2022 race, Morrow also publicly said teachers should have their Second Amendment rights protected but should not bear the responsibility of school safety.
Asked by Fox News Digital to expand on what she meant by this, Morrow claimed that over the past several years, 1,500 teachers have been assaulted in a classroom and, in 2023 alone, more than 600 elementary students brought weapons to school. She vowed to consult with law enforcement officials, child psychologists and counselors to develop a new statewide school safety plan.
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Asked about Jan. 6, Morrow deflected, saying, “The people of North Carolina are excited about the future and what it holds for what we want to do in education. Seventy-five percent of North Carolina eighth graders were found incompetent in math, reading and science last year.
“And, so, it’s time for us to actually get politics out of the classroom and start focusing on the sound, basic education that our Constitution promises every student.”
Morrow has not been charged in the Capitol riot.