Even though she lost her School Board seat this year, there was no way Laura Zorc was simply going to walk away from education.
Little did she know, though, that her failed re-election bid last summer would put her on a path to Washington, D.C., and present her with a national platform to work for change in education at a grassroots level.
“You know what they say about God closing one door and opening another,” Zorc said Sunday. “As much as I wanted to continue serving on the School Board, this is an exciting opportunity to have an impact on education on a national scale.”
Zorc has been hired by FreedomWorks, a Washington-based, nationally recognized conservative advocacy group founded in 1984 to enlist and mobilize activists who embrace the principles of smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, personal liberty and the rule of law.
Officially, she began work last week as “senior advisor for education policy reform and parent-led advocacy” – a position FreedomWorks created to launch an initiative to get parents across the country involved in the decision-making process around legislation that impacts their children’s schooling.
The new job requires her to commute between her Vero Beach home and Washington, especially when Congress is in session and discussing education and school-funding issues. She’ll also travel across the United States developing and nurturing relationships with parent groups.
“I have a lofty goal of empowering parents with the confidence, tools and resources they need to be advocates for their children’s education,” Zorc said. “It’s imperative that parents and caregivers take part in the various forms of decision-making processes when it comes to their child’s education.
“The other choice is for parents to be stuck with the decisions being made for their kids by politicians and bureaucrats.”
In her role as a national advocate for education, Zorc said she’ll continue to write op-ed columns when appropriate – she’s already penned two pieces that appeared in the Washington Times, on Florida Daily.com and the FreedomWorks website – and could make appearances on national television.
“You might see me on Fox News,” she said.
If we see Zorc on TV any time soon, she’ll likely be appearing via Zoom from Vero Beach, because coronavirus-related, workplace-capacity restrictions in Washington have postponed some of her travel plans.
“I’m looking to get an apartment in D.C., and because this is a new initiative, I’ll need to go up there to the office to get organized,” she said. “But once we get going, I’ll probably be spending most of my travel time going to the states where I’ll be working with parent groups.”
So how did Zorc, chairman for the final two years of a four-year School Board term that ended last month, connect with FreedomWorks?
Zorc said her relationship with the group dates back to 2013, when she co-founded Florida Parents Against Common Core, which opposes the state adhering to a set of national educational standards.
“They supported the same position, and we stayed in contact through the years,” said Zorc, who has traveled around the state and to other parts of the country to speak on Common Core, federal mandates and school-choice issues.
“Occasionally, they’d ask me to come up and talk about advocacy and parental involvement in education,” she added. “One year, they flew me out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a fundraising event with 50 to 60 of their largest donors. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and several other conservative senators were there.
“We’ve had an ongoing relationship ever since.”
One week after learning that Zorc had lost her re-election bid in August, FreedomWorks Executive Vice President Noah Wall raised the possibility of adding her to his team.
He called Zorc and arranged a meeting in Orlando, where he offered her an opportunity to write a couple of education-related op-ed pieces, with the potential to do more if he liked what he read.
“I knew for the past several years they wanted to bring in someone to be an advocate in education policy, but I never thought it would lead to this,” Zorc said. “I had no idea they were thinking about a full-time position.”
Zorc has conservative credentials, including service as a volunteer on Ted Cruz’s Florida leadership team during the Texas senator’s 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
She’s also been a local and state education advocate and was one of 10 people selected from a pool of 2,800 applicants to serve on former Gov. Rick Scott’s “Keep Florida Learning Committee.”
Zorc said she was “honored” to get this chance to “make a difference” on the national stage.
“I started this journey through being an advocate for my own children’s education and learned quickly that change only comes by those willing to speak up and show up,” Zorc said, adding that she is passionate about parental involvement “because I have lived it and breathed it.”
Now she’s getting paid to do it, nationally.
“Naturally, I was disappointed when I lost the election, but I guess everything happens for a reason,” Zorc said. “If I had won, I wouldn’t have been in position to do something like this. And I really believe we can make an impact.
“FreedomWorks is very big with conservatives.”