The political scandal engulfing the National School Boards Association continues to percolate.
On Friday, the Idaho School Boards Association voted to sever its membership with the NSBA, according to Newsmax. Idaho thus became the 21st state to cut its ties with the group that recently rose to prominence a few weeks ago by suggesting that parents questioning liberal education policies were domestic terrorists and hate-crimes perpetrators.
In a press release, the Idaho group said the NSBA “currently lacks the vision necessary to bring about fundamental and critical change and to regain its important role as an advocate for excellence in public education through school board leadership.”
“While we continue to believe there is a value in a national association of school boards, our primary obligation is to advocate for Idaho students to have quality public schools no matter their zip code,” the group added. “We are unable to advocate for Idaho students if we are continuously held accountable for the actions of NSBA. As such, we feel the NSBA is unable to meet the needs requested by the ISBA Executive Board at this time and has a long way to restore a culture of transparency.”
According to Newsmax, Idaho joins the following states in ditching the NSBA: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Florida was among the first state-level groups to end a connection with the NSBA.
Additionally, eight other states – Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming – have “distanced themselves” from the letter that launched the controversy and started the exodus, Newsmax reported.
As The Free Press reported back in October, the NSBA’s president and executive director sent that letter to President Joe Biden claiming that its members complained about feeling threatened by parents who appeared before local school boards to rebel against mandatory masking, promoting permissive transgender policies and Critical Race Theory indoctrination.
Attorney General Merrick Garland responded by pledging to mobilize FBI agents and federal prosecutors to monitor and intervene in these local meetings.
Garland has since denied that he sicced FBI agents on parents.
But the controversy revved up again last week. Parents Defending Education, a group advocating for the rights of parents, reported that it had obtained an email showing the NSBA’s leadership knew Garland was going to issue his directives to prosecutors and FBI agents before they were actually publicized.
The PDE’s revelation only fuels speculation that the controversy evolved from collusion between the Biden administration and the NSBA to target parents openly questioning left-wing policies.
Ironically, the NSBA board also has distanced itself from the letter, claiming its members never knew what Chip Slaven, the former executive director, was up to.
Last week, in response to PDE’s news, John Heim, the NSBA’s new executive director and CEO, told Fox News, “The sentiments shared in the letter do not represent the views or position of NSBA toward parents, and directly contradict our core commitment to parent engagement – we sent the wrong message, and we have apologized.”
The NSBA board is still investigating the controversy.
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