Congresswoman: Biden’s ‘Parents Council’ Motivated By ‘The Spirit of Deception’
After threatening to open a federal investigation into parents who spoke out against liberal policies at local school board meetings, the Biden administration’s attempt to mollify moms and dads by opening a new parents council is transparent “deception,” a Republican congresswoman said on Thursday.
“Parents are a child’s first teachers, and there’s no one better equipped to work with schools and educators to identify what students need,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona as he announced the formation of the National Parents and Families Engagement Council on Tuesday. But critics say not all is as it seems after surveying the 14 organizations who will make up the board.
“They’re setting up this council supposedly representing parents — but these are the [activists] on the Left who called the parents who showed up at school board meetings ‘domestic terrorists,’” Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) told Tony Perkins on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch.”
The Biden administration’s announcement was motivated by “the spirit of deception,” said Miller, who sits on the House Committee on Education and Labor. “Everything that comes out of their mouth is twisted, and they’re lying.”
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter asking President Joe Biden to investigate whether parents who dissented from school policies ranging from pornographic books to teachings controversial ideologies had violated the Patriot Act, putting parents on par with domestic terrorists. Of the 24 incidents the letter cited as justifying a terrorism investigation, 16 merely amounted to verbal disagreements that did not involve any hint of violence, according to National Review.
Internal emails between NSBA members later revealed that the group wrote the letter to fulfill “a request by Secretary Cardona.” Five days after receiving the letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the formation of a joint Justice Department-FBI task force to work with local officials “where threats of violence may not constitute federal crimes.”
The specter of the federal government prosecuting a father who called out school officials who swept his daughter’s rape by a transgender male under the rug revolted most parents — but not those on the new parents board. “The best (funniest?) thing about this ‘parents council’ is that it includes people who publicly defended the letter that called parents ‘domestic terrorists’ and were vicious towards those who publicly called the letter out,” Erika Sanzi of Parents Defending Education noted on Tuesday.
Among them is Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, who called conservative parents “knuckleheads” and seemingly conflated disagreeing with COVID-19 masking policies and objecting to critical race theory with incitements to violence. “If you threaten to kill school board members, you SHOULD hear from the Justice Dept. Some of these anti-mask/CRT knuckleheads tried this with us a couple weeks ago when we were testifying about ACTUALLY IMPORTANT S**T & found out REAL QUICK,” she tweeted.
In another continuing trend, Fox News’ website reported the council’s formation at face value and quoted Keri Rodrigues — without noting that she called people who oppose critical race theory (which would include the vast majority of Fox’s audience) “knuckleheads.” However, “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade and Fox Business Channel’s Kennedy aired segments critical of the council on their respective programs.
“One thing I’ve recognized here in D.C. is that there’s a spirit of deception over our country,” said Rep. Miller, who said citizens are waging a war for the soul of America. “We have no mooring,” she continued. “We have ignored God. We’ve been rebels and gone our own way. And now we’ve come to the place where we’re saying that we can change our children from one sex to another, and we’re going to do it without parental consent.”
She added that the Biden administration is cracking down on “states that have decided to defend our children against transgendering, when they won’t even do the number one job they have, which is to secure our border.”
In the meantime, parents must continue to make their voices heard, even as the newly formed council seeks to give the Biden administration a veneer of popular support, she stated.
“We cannot be passive,” declared Miller. “Do whatever it takes to protect your children. If you have to sell a car … in order to homeschool your children, or maybe you’re going to go get a second job in order to afford a private school.”
“If your school is pushing [these] CRT and transgender policies on your children, please get your children out,” the congresswoman pleaded. “It’s not worth it to leave them in.”
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.