NSBA official said controversial letter followed ‘a request by Secretary Miguel Cardona’
FIRST ON FOX: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona solicited the much-criticized letter from the National School Boards Association that compared protesting parents to domestic terrorists, according to an email exchange reviewed by Fox News.
The email exchange indicates Cardona was more involved with the letter’s creation than previously known.
President Biden’s Department of Justice relied on the NSBA letter, which suggested using the Patriot Act against parents, in creating its own memo directing the FBI to mobilize in support of local education officials.
In the Oct. 5 email, NSBA Secretary-Treasurer Kristi Swett recounted that NSBA interim CEO Chip Slaven “told the officers he was writing a letter to provide information to the White House, from a request by Secretary Cardona.”
Previous emails had revealed that the NSBA was in contact with the White House and Justice Department in the weeks before it publicly sent the letter.
The emails were obtained by the parents group Parents Defending Education in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
“Should this allegation be true, it would reveal that this administration’s pretextual war on parents came from the highest levels,” PDE President Nicole Neily told Fox News Digital.
By Peter Hasson
Read Full Article on FoxNews.com
New FOIA Document Asserts NSBA Letter Was Drafted at Request of Education Secretary
In newly obtained emails between National School Board Association board members Marnie Maldonado and Kristi Swett dated October 5-6, 2021, Ms. Swett —an officer of the NSBA board currently serving as secretary-treasurer —asserts that Chip Slaven (who was, at the time, the interim executive director of NSBA) “told the officers he was writing a letter to provide information to the White House, from a request by Secretary Cordona” [sic].
This is the first such mention of Secretary Cardona’s involvement in the creation of the NSBA’s since-retracted letter requesting federal intervention in school board issues.
