The Biden administration and the nation’s largest teachers’ union appeared to have colluded to target parents who questioned radical school policies, according to two Republican senators, who have called for an investigation.
“It also looks like they attempted to pressure social media companies to censor parents’ social media profiles as well. Senator Marco Rubio and I are calling for Inspector General investigations at both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice into this matter. We need answers,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.
Lummis, Rubio and nine other senators sent a letter to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education, describing the collusion and calling for an investigation.
As they described it, on Oct. 8, 2021, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, the National Education Association, sent a letter to social media companies such as Facebook requesting that they remove “propaganda” and “disinformation” posted by parents who were protesting school policies regarding Covid-19 and Critical Race Theory.
“There is reason to suspect the NEA worked with Biden Administration officials to write this letter after email evidence revealed that the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education colluded with the National School Board Association (NSBA) to produce a letter sent to President Biden a few days earlier, on September 29, 2021,” Lummis and Rubio wrote.
Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization advocating for non-political education and the prevention of indoctrination in the classroom, obtained NSBA internal emails through the Freedom of Information Act. The documents show that in September the NSBA coordinated directly with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in writing a letter that equated parents‘ concerns about Covid-I9 regulations, school curriculum, and other policies, as “terrorism.” The NSBA almost immediately requested the Biden the Administration use federal law enforcement agencies to address “threats“ and “acts of intimidation“ by parents against school staff and boards.
“The issue first garnered national attention when Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo on October 4. 202l, directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go after these parents. After receiving significant pushback from many state school boards, the NSBA issued a public apology on October 22, 2021. At least I9 states have since withdrawn their membership from this organization after the release of the troubling statements,” the senators wrote.
“While we remain concerned that parents whom are peacefully protesting continue to be threatened by the failure of the Attorney General to rescind his memo, we are equally disturbed that the NSBA and NEA used taxpayer dollars -collected as dues from member schools – to carry out politically motivated attacks against concerned parents at the direction of the Biden Administration. These actions must be investigated, as threatening and intimidating concerned parents should never be tolerated,” the senators wrote. “Parents deserve to know the complete truth on this matter. Just because someone disagrees with you does not give you the right to silence them. These fundamental and constitutional freedoms must be upheld by every American and every organization.”
The signers on the letter were from Sen. Cynthia Lummis-Wyoming, Marco Rubio-Florida, Roger Wicker-Mississippi, Joni Ernst-Iowa, Mike Braun-Indiana, Steve Daines-Montana, Roger Marshall-Kansas, John Barrasso-Wyoming, James Inhofe-Oklahoma, Cynthia Hyder-Smith-Mississippi, and James Lankford-Oklahoma.
