Florida and Tennessee are the latest states to discontinue memberships to the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after the latter described concerned parents as domestic terrorists. God forbid the parents don’t want Critical Race Theory in the classrooms with teachers telling white kids they should feel guilty because of their skin color.
Seventeen states have severed ties with the NSBA (including Illinois!) after the NSBA asked the Biden administration to investigate these parents. AG Merrick Garland announced he would sic the FBI and other DOJ departments on them. But the states know that parent involvement is a must and local law enforcement can handle any problems.
(Where are you, Oklahoma?!?)
The Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) officially left the NSBA on December 1:
FSBA did not submit payment for 2020-2021 dues to NSBA which were due July 1, 2021. FSBA was clear about reassessing the value of the affiliation with NSBA due to concerns surrounding NSBA’s governance, leadership, transparency, and failure to embrace non-partisanship.FSBA’s decision to let membership in NSBA lapse was necessary, but not made lightly. The decision to allow our membership to lapse was made in response to a persistent pattern of dysfunction within the NSBA organization and among those charged with its governance.
Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the decision:
“I support what the Florida School Board Association did. I think it was the right thing to get out of the National School Board Association. The National School Board Association was using its association to advance a partisan narrative and agenda,” DeSantis said.“And they created this letter to try to get the FBI to start basically running interference at school board meetings. You know, they’re not interested in having the FBI go after the guy in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which was an intentional act of terrorism,” he observed.“But they somehow think a parent who is upset that there is bad curriculum being put in school or forced masking or all these other things, if they speak out, that they are a domestic threat? Give me a break,” the governor said, noting that he remained opposed because he knew what they were doing.“They were trying to intimidate parents. They did not want parents to be speaking out. And I can tell you in Florida, parents should speak out,” he said, explaining that the Sunshine State has great people in law enforcement who will hold actual criminals accountable.“But going and speaking your mind is not that, and it was absolutely an attempt to intimidate,” DeSantis said.“And I would say there is a divide now, between some of these elites, people that align with the teacher unions, and parents where they say that parents really don’t have much of a role in what goes on in school. I disagree with that,” he added.
The Tennessee School Board Association (TSBA) withdrew on Friday.
TSBA Assistant Executive Director Ben Torres told The Tennessee Star: “Our board decided to leave NSBA because NSBA’s advocacy efforts are focused more on contentious issues that divide the membership instead of educational issues that should further the mission of our state associations.”
TSBA Executive Director Tammy Grissom mentioned parent involvement:
“TSBA believes that parental and family involvement in the education of each child is essential to academic success,” Grissom said via email.“Local boards of education should make every effort to enhance communication between parents and schools and remove any barriers that prevent them from teaming with school boards, administrators, and teachers to improve student achievement,” Grissom said via email.”
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