The Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) has terminated its membership with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) amid controversy over a letter sent to the Biden administration likening concerned parents at school board meetings to “domestic terrorists.”
WASB voted Tuesday not to renew its membership with NSBA, joining a number of states which have opted to do so since the letter came to light last year, the board confirmed in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“The board’s rationale for the decision includes ongoing concerns—many of which pre-date last fall’s events—about NSBA leadership, governance structure and transparency; the fiscal management and financial oversight of the national association; and its failure to prioritize and serve state school board associations. The WASB’s Board of Directors concluded that the interests of Wisconsin school boards are not being represented effectively at the national level by the NSBA,” it read.
“Actions by the NSBA’s leadership last fall needlessly harmed school board relationships and inflamed partisan tensions,” WASB said in another statement to its members. “Those actions caused more than half of the state school board organizations across the nation to distance themselves from the NSBA or drop membership entirely.”
‘Angry Mobs’
It comes after the NSBA sent a letter (pdf) to President Joe Biden on Sept. 29, 2021, asking for federal law enforcement and other assistance to “deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation,” and characterizing disruptions at school board meetings as “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crime.”The letter was in response to parents at school board meetings raising issues regarding COVID-19 restrictions like mask mandates that were being imposed on their children, as well as the teaching of Marxist critical race theory.
The letter also referred to the groups of parents raising issues as “angry mobs” that had forced the meetings to “end abruptly.”
“Local school board members want to hear from their communities on important issues and that must be at the forefront of good school board governance and promotion of free speech. However, there also must be safeguards in place to protect public schools and dedicated education leaders as they do their jobs,” the letter noted.
That review was completed in May and saw the board implement “a number of action items moving forward” based on its findings while noting that the letter had not been “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.”
The Board of Directors also apologized in October 2021 for the letter and announced new executive leadership for the organization in November 2021, with Heim replacing former Interim Executive Director and CEO, Chip Slaven.
“The letter directly contradicts our core commitments to parent engagement, local control, and nonpartisanship,” Heim said at the time. “The sentiments shared in the letter do not represent the views or position of the NSBA. The NSBA does not seek or advocate for federal law enforcement intervention at local school board meetings.”
Despite the apology and an independent review, a string of school boards have cut ties with the NSBA since 2021, including in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
