Forty-one Republican lawmakers demanded Education Secretary Miguel Cardona resign from his post over his apparent links to the National School Board Association’s (NSBA) bombshell letter comparing protesting parents to violent criminals.
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., led the letter to President Biden, which was first obtained by Fox News, demanding he “immediately fire” Cardona over the “now infamous letter.”
“In your inaugural address before the American people you said, ‘to overcome these challenges- to restore the soul and to secure the future of America-requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity,’” the letter reads. “Later you said, ‘unity is the path forward.’”
“In the aftermath of this letter and the fierce blowback it caused, Secretary Cardona rewarded Viola Garcia, the NSBA President and co-signer of the letter, with an appointment to the National Assessment Governing Board,” the lawmakers continued, pointing out that Cardona said Garcia and other appointees bring a “necessary” perspective.
The lawmakers said that any person who “believes an individual that equates parents voicing their concerns at school board meetings to domestic terrorists brings a necessary perspective to a national education board” is someone “unbecoming of a role in an administration which has pledged to foster a path forward to unify and heal our country.”
“By soliciting this letter, having their department spokesperson deny the solicitation despite the clear and irrefutable evidence, as well as appointing the letter’s co-signer to a national education board and praising their credentials, Secretary Cardona demonstrated a complete lack of judgement, a divisive approach to his position, and a betrayal of the public trust,” they wrote.
“Your pledge to help bring unity will ring even more hollow if Secretary Cardona continues in his current position,” the Republicans concluded. “As such, in order to uphold your promise to help bring unity and healing to a divided nation, you must fire Secretary Cardona effective immediately.”
Emails previously reported by Fox News indicated that Cardona had requested the NSBA’s Oct. 22 letter, which it has since apologized for, that called for federal action to address hostilities toward school boards as possible acts of “domestic terrorism.”
A Department of Education spokesperson denied that Cardona solicited the NSBA letter, despite the email indicating he did.
“While the Secretary did not solicit a letter from NSBA, to understand the views and concerns of stakeholders, the Department routinely engages with students, teachers, parents, district leaders and education associations,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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.
Several high-profile Republicans were in the group of 41 that signed onto the letter, including Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Greg Murphy of North Carolina, and Ronny Jackson of Texas.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
The controversial letter continues to garner widespread outrage since its release in the fall. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in October condemned the letter saying that the Biden Administration is “weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation.”
Franklin Graham also spoke out against the likening of parents fighting for their children to “domestic terrorists” calling it an “ominous sign” meant to “silence parents with views the Left doesn’t agree with.”
“That’s how communism works. Anyone who speaks against communism or the goals of communism becomes the enemy. And we’re seeing this happen right in our own country,” Graham warned. “The Biden Administration, which bows to the radical progressive left, would like to silence parents who voice strong opinions against critical race theory and trans radicalism at school board meetings.”
“We cannot let the government take over the parenting of our children,” Graham underscored. “School boards and schools should educate, not indoctrinate.”
“If anti-woke, anti-socialism, anti-communism citizens like us do not speak up, get involved, and take a stand to preserve what we have in this country, it will disappear right before our eyes—in just one generation,” he concluded.
An increasing number of parents are recognizing that something is very wrong in the schools their children are attending. While a mass exodus of parents have opted to pull their children out of school, others decided to confront the school boards with their concerns that they might salvage the classrooms, demanding the educators to smarten up.
At these school board meetings across the country, vocal opposition has come against the politically driven and overtly sexualized curriculums.
The parents are not the only people speaking against the schoolboards. Teachers as well have expressed concern and/or resigned at such meetings because they believe the agenda-based curriculums are damaging their students.
Ken Ham, Founder and CEO of Answers In Genesis, in his recent article, “Who ‘Owns’ Children?” wrote:
Who “owns” the children—parents or the government? In our day and age, many involved in western government believe it’s the government that owns kids. Many believe they know what is best for children and think they should get to dictate what children learn—and parents are just in the way of accomplishing the state’s goals. And that shouldn’t surprise us because how you answer the question of “Who owns the children?” depends on your starting point and the worldview you build that’s based on that starting point.
If you reject God and his Word, then anything goes—there’s no absolute standard on which to base your thinking. In this view, children are just biological machines, the product of millions of years of evolution. They aren’t given to parents—they are just a “choice” parents made.
But when we start with God’s Word, we learn that children are a gift from God—given to parents. He has given parents authority over their children and the responsibility of training, teaching, and raising children. They are not just “choices,” nor are they the government’s responsibility—children are parent’s responsibility because God gave children to their parents to train them up for him.
