What do you really want for your kids when you send them off to school? I’m guessing it’s, at the very least, a good teacher, discipline, and learning necessary subjects such as reading, math, history, science, and English—those subjects, to be taught in their purest form, with no personal ideology added in. If your kids go to a public school, they may not be receiving what you want.
It just came out yesterday that the group Parents Defending Education obtained a memo sent from Marnie Maraldo to Kristi Swett through a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. Who are they? They are both on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Ms. Swett is Secretary-Treasurer, and Ms. Maraldo is one of ten Directors.
Why does this matter? It matters because Marnie Maraldo was apparently in the dark that the letter requesting help from the Department of Justice (see my blog post November 19, 2021 “Being ‘Tagged’ is Not a Kids’ Game.”) was written and sent because President Biden’s Secretary of Education, Miguel
Cardona, first sent a letter to the NSBA telling them to write a letter requesting help from the Department of Justice. That was the letter that compared parents who came to school board meetings to complain about pornographic materials, teaching CRT, and other objectionable aspects of school instruction, to domestic terrorists.
Prior to the memo from Miguel Cardona, members of the NSBA were having meetings with people at the White House. Following those meetings, Secretary Cardona sent the letter to NSBA, NSBA complied with his request and sent a letter back asking for help.
Now back to Marnie Maraldo. She sent a letter to the NBSA Secretary-Treasurer Kristi Swett, which read in part:
I was wondering if the following Board policy was followed when the statement to President Biden was drafted or sent: [A paragraph of the NSBA Emergency Powers rules was included.] . . . I am very concerned about the process by which the statement was made and the tone that essentially allowed the White House to direct the Attorney General to consider members of our community “domestic terrorists”. I agree that we need to focus on civility, and we should be looking to our local law enforcement to protect board members and deal with threats of violence. I would have appreciated an opportunity to work with my fellow board members to give better direction on this very delicate topic.
An excerpt of Ms. Swett’s reply reads:
At the time, no, I didn’t think the letter fell under an emergency situation, it certainly was not characterized that way when Chip told the officers he was writing a letter to provide information to the White House, from a request by Secretary Cordona. [Emphasis added.]
So let’s go through these machinations to help clarify what happened.
- NSBA meets with people at the White House.
- Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona wrote to NSBA telling them to write a letter of complaint to him.
- NSBA writes that letter of complaint, likens the complaining parents to domestics terrorists, and sends it to the White House.
- The White House alerts the Department of Justice to take action.
- The Department of Justice acknowledges the “terrorist activities” and will treat the parents as such.
Are these the kind of people you want overseeing your child’s education? Perhaps it is time to
completely take this vital role of the education of our children away from the government. Perhaps the time for vouchers for school choice has come.