Funding for the Texas Association of Schools Boards (TASB) membership renewal for the upcoming year would have been due on July 1, 2022, but based on the board’s May 23 decision, the renewal will not be processed.
“After several hours of discussion, our board decided to leave the NSBA due to the significant lack of internal controls and processes outlined in the report,” Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield, TASB’s associate executive director of communications and marketing, told The Epoch Times.
“In short, serious concerns about the lack of good governance practices was the primary driver behind the decision.”
“I’m glad they were doing some reports and audits, but they were completely unnecessary,” said state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Waxahachie).
“All somebody had to do was read the plain text of the letter that we know was worked on in collusive action with the NSBA and the Biden administration. TASB should have left NSBA the second that letter became published.”
The Sept. 29 letter, signed by NSBA Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven and President Viola Garcia, asked for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of alleged threats against school board members.
“I was alarmed they were actually looking at using law enforcement, the National Guard, to suppress a parents’ right to participate in their children’s education,” said state Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano).
The letter further implied that parents were engaging in domestic terrorism.
“As these acts of malice, violence and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” Slaven and Garcia wrote.
Shaheen and Harrison, who are both members of the Freedom Caucus, had been pressuring TASB to withdraw from NSBA since the letter was made public last year.
“It shows a connectivity between the Justice Department and the White House, trying to falsely accuse parents of being domestic terrorists,” said Pat Hardy, a Republican who has served on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) for some 20 years.
“In other words, the president of the United States is basically calling parents who question some of the things that are going on in their children’s schools domestic terrorists.”
The report further concluded the following.
The September 2021 letter was “principally directed, reviewed, and approved by” Slaven, who was responsible for both the “origin and substance of the letter.”
NSBA President Frank Henderson Jr. has since apologized.
“Thank you for apologizing,” said Audrey Young, a Republican SBOE member. “People can apologize all day long, but unless your behavior changes, then an apology means nothing.
“I want to see NSBA get back to providing global training on the importance of local boards, their authority and their responsibility to the community. It is my opinion that TASB was not receiving its money’s worth.”
The review points to collaboration between Slaven and the White House, but it “did not find direct or indirect evidence suggesting the administration requested the letter.”
“What was alarming as I read the report is where the Biden administration was working with the National School Board Association,” Shaheen told The Epoch Times.
“That’s very troubling. That means you have the National School Board Association with the executive branch of the federal government working against parents.”
The letter was not widely reviewed or approved within the organization, and the finalized letter was not disclosed to the full NSBA Board of Directors or NSBA members until after it was submitted.
“When they called these parents terrorists, that was way, way over the line,” Shaheen said. “They didn’t believe parents had the right to speak out when liberal Democratic extremists were trying to sexualize their children.
“Children have been politicized by liberal extremists for a very long time.”
Texas is the 23rd state to withdraw from NSBA, which provides national-level events and training as well as advocacy on behalf of state associations in Washington, D.C.
Other states that have also withdrawn include California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Illinois, and Missouri.
“This organization was using taxpayer money to ask the administration to target those same tax-paying parents,” Harrison said.
For 2021-22, TASB is saving $103,747 on membership dues it would have paid NSBA, according to Dunne-Oldfield.
“At present, we are not looking at any alternative organizations,” she told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Our TASB Risk Management Fund [insurance] is not connected to our membership in the NSBA. It’s Texas focused and managed here in Texas.”
