Monica Wilbur

Monica Wilbur was selected as a Gladiolus Group inductee for her unconventional approach to fighting against radical education agendas and her command of the nuances of education issues both local and global.

Monica Wilbur is a happy warrior, mom, wife, writer, and former English teacher & debate coach. Over the past 5 years, Wilbur’s work in education has specialized in education policy, research, consulting, analysis, and content development. Wilbur’s advocacy to prioritize foundational academics, respect conscience in school, restore schools’ proper role, and protect children from exploitation continued in her candidacy for the State Board of Education in 2024. Her campaign centered on advocating for course correction at the highest levels of public education to protect against secular sectarian control of the system.

In addition to authoring various articles on the K-12 educational landscape, Monica Wilbur has applied her background in technical writing & editing to crafting public policy to protect children from sexualized agendas, promote constitutional rights of conscience & religious belief, and curtail the expansion of political, racial, and social change agendas in schools.

Wilbur has provided extensive public testimony concerning education policy at state and local board meetings, as well as at the state legislature. Her policy work includes co-authoring Utah’s House Bill 348 of 2023, which created unprecedented constitutional protections of conscience and religious belief for students and their parents in schools and consulting on groundbreaking legislation protecting students from having their characters tracked and graded through social emotional learning. She has also been a stalwart defender of homeschooling and classical literature.

Monica Wilbur co-founded Higher Ground (higherground.work), an organization and platform dedicated to informing and warning the public of harmful policies, practices, programs, and pedagogies in the education system. Wilbur has been a co-presenter at dozens of public & private events, including the University of Utah Young America’s Foundation’s 2023-24 speaker lineup, which notably featured other speakers including the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, detransitioner Chloe Cole, and political commentator Elisha Krauss.