Minnesotan quits national school group over investigating parents as domestic terrorists
One of two Minnesotans on the board of the National School Boards Association has resigned her position over her objections to the NSBA’s controversial letter requesting the Biden administration to investigate participants at local school board meetings as domestic terrorists.
Kathy Green, a member of the Austin Public Schools Board and formerly of the National School Boards Association board, told American Experiment in an email that she severed ties over the group’s call for the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education and Homeland Security to take enforcement action under the Patriot Act and other laws against “extremist hate organizations showing up at school board meetings.”
I resigned my position as a regional director of the National School Boards Association on October 21st of this year. In response to the NSBA ‘Letter’ to President Biden, I can not explain, condone or defend its tenets. Many of which in my opinion are in conflict with our United States Constitution. I had no knowledge of the ‘Letter’ prior to it being sent to the President.
The NSBA’s call for federal authorities to probe participants in local school board meetings became a potent election issue in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign and races in other states. The backlash led several state affiliates to disassociate themselves from the NSBA.
Now the Minnesota School Boards Association has come under fire for failing to clarify its position on the national organization’s letter. Forum News reports GOP members of the Minnesota Senate have taken it further, calling on the MSBA to distance itself from the national board altogether.
State Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, chairs the Senate Education Committee. He said parents have a right to be worried about policies implemented in and lessons taught in schools. And they should be able to participate in school board meetings “without being bullied or intimidated by the Department of Justice.”
“That the national school board organization would be involved in this attack on parents is outrageous,” Chamberlain said in a statement. “Unless and until there is a complete leadership overhaul at the national level, the Minnesota School Board Association must preserve the integrity of its mission by withdrawing its membership from the NSBA.”
The executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association, Kirk Schneidawind, also serves as the national group’s chair of the Organization of State Association Executive Directors and as an ex-officio non-voting director on the board of directors.
He told Forum the MSBA played no role in drafting the controversial letter, leaving the door open for the possibility of leaving the NSBA and participating in any potential inquiry into the incident.
Kirk Schneidawind, executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association, said the group wasn’t involved in the writing of the NSBA letter and called for its retraction. The association hasn’t discussed withdrawing from the national group but plans to take that up along with a conversation about the association’s involvement in potential investigations, he said.
“The MSBA Board of Directors will be meeting soon to discuss our plan forward or our relationship with the National School Boards Association,” he said.
The National School Boards Association ultimately retracted the request for federal government intervention. But U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland continues to defend his directive for the FBI to meet with local authorities over school board meetings, guaranteeing the issue will not go away any time soon in Minnesota and other states.