Backlash over the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) decision to target parents has been felt far and wide. Even the NSBA is apologizing for its role. So, why won’t Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) do the same?
A little more than six years ago, I co-founded the House Freedom Caucus to push back on bullies in Congress who used their political power to pressure our colleagues to ‘fall in line’ rather than stick to their principles.
I’m seeing similar attempts at intimidation again today, only this time the bullies are school board bureaucrats who see concerned parents as a threat to the liberal agenda that they want to impose in our classrooms, which means on our children.
In late September, the top two leaders of the NSBA wrote a letter to President Joe Biden that painted a false picture of the men and women who attend school board meetings. It claimed that school boards are “under an immediate threat” from these attendees – whose behavior the letter compared to “a form of domestic terrorism” – and then solicited the “resources” of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to combat them.
It was as out-of-touch as it was offensive – and local school board associations across the country, from Ohio and Missouri to Louisiana and Florida, have begun to distance themselves from the group in protest.
The nationwide condemnation has grown so strong that the NSBA recently issued a statement that “we regret and apologize for the letter,” which begs the question: Will the attorney general and the ASBA apologize for their own roles in perpetuating this smear campaign?
The Justice Department’s role was the most direct and egregious. Within five days of receiving the NSBA’s letter, the Biden Administration had already used it to formulate and distribute a memo coaching the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s offices on how to prosecute school board critics. Five days! Never before has the federal government worked so quickly. And now we know why.
Public records reveal that the NSBA and Biden White House had been coordinating on the letter “for several weeks” ahead of its release. The administration therefore not only approved of the language, but was directly involved in drafting it.
This makes it all-the-more curious why Garland claimed during his recent testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, “I don’t care what the letter says.” The attorney general ‘cared’ enough about the NSBA’s letter to use it as the basis for his memo, yet he feigned ignorance under the spotlight of an oversight hearing.
This pattern of obfuscation is unsettling, to say the least. What is clear is that Garland must immediately rescind his memo and apologize to parents across this country. It is the least that he can do to lower the temperature in the room until lawmakers understand how this was allowed to happen.
The ASBA also has some explaining to do.
While the national association has apologized for its actions, I am disappointed to see that this state-level association has not expressed any sense of remorse for its own, despite promoting the NSBA’s letter on its social media page and conducting a radio interview in defense of the Justice Department’s aggressive tactics.
It is past time for the ASBA to apologize for its role in this controversy and cut ties with the NSBA for the good of our state. Otherwise, perhaps it is time for local school boards to stand up for openness and independence and decide whether it is time for them to cut ties with the ASBA.
As for Garland, it is likely time for him to walk into the Oval Office with a letter of resignation, as he has lost all credibility with moms and dads with kids in schools across America.
All of this heightens the need to have elected leaders at state level who are proven and have delivered for conservatives. Candidates who have appeased and supported fringe liberals who view the parents of school-age children as ‘terrorists’ need to be exposed and forced to answer tough questions.