Education Secretary Miguel Cardona personally requested the now-famous letter from the National School Boards Association calling parent activists domestic terrorists, according to new emails obtained by a parent activist group.
The emails were obtained by the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education through a Freedom of Information Act request and revealed that the September letter from the National School Boards Association to the Biden administration was personally requested by Cardona.
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The September letter, for which the NSBA has since apologized, prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to form a joint DOJ-FBI task force to investigate threats against school board members amid a nationwide pushback against school board officials over COVID-19 mandates and controversial curricula.
The email shows an exchange between NSBA board member Marnie Maldonado and NSBA Secretary-Treasurer Kristi Swett discussing the letter, which was written, Swett said, in response to “a request by Secretary Cardona.”
Cardona, the former Connecticut education commissioner, was appointed by President Joe Biden and took office in March of last year.
Maldonado had emailed Swett to ask if the NSBA’s own policies had been followed when it sent the letter and expressed concern that the statement and tone of the letter “allowed the White House to direct the Attorney General to consider members of our community ‘domestic terrorists.'”
In response, Swett told Maldonado that “our board needs to have a discussion about a screening process for communications which go out from NSBA, that is aligned with our mission, vision and purpose statement.”
In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily said that if Cardona indeed solicited the NSBA’s letter, then he “must be held accountable.”
“Attorney General Merrick Garland repeatedly stated that he based his memo, which mobilized the FBI and US Attorneys, on the NSBA letter,” Neily said. “This alleged coordination between Secretary Cardona and the Department of Justice is deeply concerning.”
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The NSBA’s letter was ultimately withdrawn, and the organization apologized for sending it, but the attorney general defended the letter and the task force he set up during several congressional hearings in late October, saying the concerns raised in the letter were legitimate even if the NSBA had withdrawn it.
House Republicans were quick to call for accountability from Cardona. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, said the “pattern of behavior” by the administration and Cardona “is what one could expect from a political arsonist.”
“It is abundantly clear to me that Secretary Cardona must answer to the Education and Labor Committee, Congress on the whole, and especially the American people. Anything less is an insult to the proud parents who want to better the education of their children,” Foxx said.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a Department of Education spokesperson denied Cardona solicited the letter but added that “to understand the views and concerns of stakeholders, the Department routinely engages with students, teachers, parents, district leaders and education associations.”
