The Department of Education is shutting down its “Parents Council” after just five months.
America First Legal, Parents Defending Education, and Fight for Schools and Families filed a lawsuit against the council, accusing it of bias.
The Department of Education (DOE) is to “immediately and permanently” disband a five-month-old national parents council after conservative groups sued it for allegedly being unbalanced and politically biased.
According to a Dec. 5 court notice (pdf), the department said it’s “immediately and permanently disbanding the [National Parents and Families Engagement Council] and that the Council will not hold any future meetings.”
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona first revealed the creation of the new parents engagement council on June 14, prompting rights advocacy groups including America First Legal Foundation (AFL), Fight for Schools and Families (FSF), and Parents Defending Education (PDE) to jointly sue the department in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 6, alleging the department had violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act when it established the council.
America First Legal has previously exposed the left-wing bias of the council.
Eleven of the organizations on the council had donated to Biden or other Democrat lawmakers.
Eleven organizations whose highest-ranking executive donated to President Biden and other Democratic lawmakers.
The National Parents Union, whose president defended Attorney General Garland’s DOJ memo on school boards.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) which endorsed Secretary Cardona.
The National Action Network, an organization run by Al Sharpton that promises “No Justice No Peace” and that hosted President Biden at its annual convention.
The decision was praised by those who sued.
America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel called it “a significant victory for the American people.”
Ian Prior, Executive Director of Fight for Schools and Families said it “should serve as a message to the Biden Administration.”
Nicole Neily, President of Parents Defending Education said “we will do everything in our power to protect and defend our children from those who would do them harm.”
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel:
“This is a significant victory for the American people. It was just a little over a year ago that the Biden Administration, through Attorney General Merrick Garland, made the decision to target parents for speaking out at school board meetings. Our lawsuit targeted their faux ‘National Parents and Families Engagement Council’ and the Administration’s attempt to use it to paper over their open hostility towards parents and families. While we continue to seek justice and accountability for the issuance of the Attorney General’s absurd October 2021 memorandum that initiated this whole sequence of events, we are tremendously proud to have partnered with other concerned patriots to effectively end the Biden Administration’s faux Council,” said Gene Hamilton.
Statement from Ian Prior, Executive Director of Fight for Schools and Families:
“The Biden Administration has done everything in its power to silence the voice of parents who are standing up on behalf of their children against the Education Industrial Complex. This faux parents council was nothing more than the administration trying to rig the system once more by stacking the deck with the very special interest groups that awakened parents across America to their long game to politicize public schools with a far-left, anti-parent agenda. This is a major win for parental rights and should serve as a message to the Biden Administration – we have only just begun to fight for our children’s future,” said Ian Prior.
Statement from Nicole Neily, President of Parents Defending Education:
“The fact that the Biden Administration chose to shut down its virtue-signaling parents council – rather than add any intellectual diversity – speaks volumes. Students do best when their families are involved in their education – and it should be a goal at the federal, state, and local level to bring us into the process, not to shut us out when our perspectives and values differ. Parents will not be used as window dressing to advance radical policies, and we will do everything in our power to protect and defend our children from those who would do them harm,” said Nicole Neily.
They fought back and won!
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