For Immediate Release

August 30, 2022

SAN DIEGO, CA -- August 30, 2022- Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) will host its first annual conference "Fighting Preferences and Indoctrination in Education" at the University of San Diego, on this Saturday, September 3rd, 2022. This much-anticipated event will feature policy makers, academics, public advocates and community leaders who will all gather in Southern California to discuss the current state of public education, ramifications of various progressive ideological proposals in the American education, and proven strategies to counterbalance the illiberal trend of indoctrination in both higher education and K-12.

"CFER's first-ever conference will be a historic gathering of experts, advocates and key stakeholders to share success stories, informative resources and policy insights on how to build excellence and reclaim public education," commented Saga Conroy, CFER secretary. "I hope that our event will inform, engage and encourage concerned parents and citizens so that they can be better equipped to defend freedom, equal treatment and the merit-based principle."

While CFER was established in the wake of California's resounding victory defending the state constitutional principle of equal treatment (Prop. 209) in late 2020, we have made solid progress advancing our cause of equal rights through voter education, policy monitoring, robust research, legal advocacy and media outreach. At the same time, many of CFER's friends and allies have contributed to the growing, national movement for accountability, excellence and merit in public education. CFER's first annual conference seeks to synthesize the positive lessons and success experiences from the pro-education, pro-parents, pro-America movement.

We will be joined by an impressive lineup of nationally recognized speaker, including: Hon. Gloria J. Romero, former State Senator and the State Senate's Democratic majority leader; Hon. Kevin Kiley, State Assembly Member; Dr. Williamson Evers, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education; Dr. Lance Izumi, Senior Director of Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute; Professor Gail Heriot, University of San Diego Professor of Law and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner; Professor Richard Sander, UCLA Jesse Dukeminier Professor in Law; Professor Erec Smith, York College Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition and Co-Founder of Free Black Thought; Dr. Elana Fishbein, Founder and President of No Left Turn in Education; Dr. Joe Nalven, Anthropologist, Philosopher and Former Faculty at the San Diego State University; Hon. Mari Barke, Orange County Board of Education President; Hon. Chris Arend, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board President; Mr. Dan Morenoff, Executive Director of the American Civil Rights Project; Mr. Eli Steele, Award-winning filmmaker and writer; Mr. Wen Fa, Senior Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation; Mr. Michael Bowen, Co-Founder of Free Black Thought.