After college, she became assistant to the editor of its magazine, New Guard, and wrote an influential critique of Walter Mondale's Child Development Bill that eventually led to its defeat.
At the time, she was education director at The Heritage Foundation and a speechwriter for conservative Republican congressmen, including Phil Crane.
She organized a series of "Citizens' Workshops" to defend the rights of parents to select their own textbooks and discuss the possibility of starting parent-run schools.
Her experiences in Kanawha County, West Virginia inspired her to write Blackboard Tyranny, a book that instructed conservative parents on how to start their own schools.
In 1987, she left Washington, D.C. to concentrate on raising her three surviving children, accepting a position as general editor for a Christian publishing house and setting up a home office.