After a year of legal wrangling, the federal government has finally complied with a FOIA request for records of correspondence between the Biden administration and the National School Boards Association.
The request regarded the latter’s infamous appeal for assistance confronting perceived threats to public school officials from parents concerned about their children’s education, whom the group compared to domestic terrorists.
The state of Texas and 13 other states sued the federal government in March 2022 for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for these records. This followed the revelation that the September 29, 2021, letter was the basis for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s subsequent memorandum announcing a Department of Justice initiative to combat such threats. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona solicited the letter as justification for targeting individuals opposed to the administration’s agenda.
Attorney General Ken Paxton announced this week that the court dismissed the suit after the Department of Education and Department of Justice provided the requested material:
In recent years, it has become clearer than ever that we must push back against the Left’s attempts to take over our schools and indoctrinate our children. Parents recognize that, and I stand with every concerned mother and father across America who works to better their child’s education. Joe Biden and officials in his Administration see it differently. They chose to label parents as “domestic terrorists” because they want parents to fear getting more involved in their children’s schooling. Worse, they tried to cover it up. But I’m proud to say that thanks to our efforts, they were unsuccessful.
Paxton did not disclose what the records contain or provide any details regarding what the newly obtained materials reveal.
Emails previously obtained through FOIA requests from Parents Defending Education and Protect the Public’s Trust reveal the NSBA colluded with the Biden administration to write the letter. The organization admitted as much in its own report on the incident, which discloses how initial drafts of the letter requested security from the National Guard and military police at school board meetings.
In June of last year, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he had been in touch with FBI whistleblowers who shared that President Biden “was excited … to go after parents,” as Jordan put it.
The NSBA apologized for their letter less than a month after sending it, but that has not stopped affiliated organizations in more than 20 states from leaving the association, including the Texas Association of School Boards in May of last year.
In response to Garland’s actions to target parents and other abuses of power by the federal government, Jordan is investigating its efforts to silence and intimidate Americans as chair of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, of which Texas Democrats Sylvia Garcia and Colin Allred are members.
Paxton currently has 20 active cases against the federal government.
