Several state school board associations are withdrawing from the National School Boards Association (NSBA). And doing so pointedly.
Why?
Because of the NSBA’s September letter to President Biden characterizing the many protests by upset parents across the country as “domestic terrorism.”
Those protests are ample evidence of the growing discontent with the injection of racist “critical race theory” (CRT) into K‑12 classes. In addition to calling the avalanche of complaints a form of “domestic terrorism,” the NSBA claimed that the CRT agenda “is not taught in public schools.”
This was met with widespread (and justified) incredulity. The NSBA claimed that CRT was not being taught because college-level texts purveying CRT aren’t used in K‑12 classes. Nevertheless, teachers had been instructed, workshops had been conducted, and students had been lectured and censured — all in CRT lore and dogma.
The NSBA later unpersuasively apologized for “some of the language” of their previous letter without repudiating its main contentions or the CRT indoctrination.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued no apology for using the original NSBA letter to rationalize establishing a task force to investigate parents.
The statement of the Ohio School Boards Association public sums up the sentiments of the state organizations leaving the NSBA: “OSBA believes strongly in the value of parental and community discussion at school board meetings and we reject the labeling of parents as domestic terrorists.”
Parents Defending Education reports that as of mid-November, some 26 state school board associations have “distanced themselves” from the letter. Fifteen have formally withdrawn their memberships.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)