"Secretary Cardona’s involvement in the conception of this letter is especially alarming considering that it was subsequently used by the Department of Justice to legitimize a new initiative cracking down on vaguely defined 'threats' to school boards — and threatening the First Amendment rights of parents to speak freely and petition their government," read Monday's letter, which was signed by 120 Conservative groups.
The Conservative Action Project led this group. Among the signatories were American Principles Project President Terry Schilling, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Concerned Women for America President Penny Young Nance, former Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and several former congressmen.
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Fox News reported earlier this month that an NSBA official had written in an email that the letter was answering a request from Cardona. A Department of Education spokesperson previously denied that Cardona solicited the NSBA letter, despite the email implying that he did.
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"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. Monday's letter noted that parents "have numerous serious reasons to be upset at the way public school officials have acted in recent months, including their unnecessary and harmful closure of schools, implementation of onerous and needless COVID-19 restrictions like student mask mandates, and injection of Left-wing propaganda like Critical Race Theory and gender ideology into the classroom. The Biden Administration’s vilification of these parents is contemptible."
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"Given his apparent role in this effort to infringe on the rights of concerned parents, it is clear that Secretary Cardona can no longer credibly lead the U.S. Department of Education nor play a significant role in implementing federal education policy. We call on him to resign immediately."
As the letter acknowledged, the Justice Department pursued an FBI investigation looking into potential threats against school officials. Both DOJ and NSBA have indicated they didn't view peaceful protesters as domestic terrorists.
"Local school board members want to hear from their communities on important issues and that must be at the forefront of good school board governance and promotion of free speech," NSBA's letter reads.
"However, there also must be safeguards in place to protect public schools and dedicated education leaders as they do their jobs."
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