Biden Admin Sued Over New Parents Council, Claims Say It’s Politically Biased
A group of parental rights activists are suing the Biden Administration for its new Parents Council, claiming it to be politically biased.
Just a few weeks ago, the Biden Administration and the US Department of Education (DOE) announced a collaboration to create a national Parents Council, in an attempt to strengthen the bonds between families and schools. But just as quick as the announcement came, Biden critics were even faster at condemning it, claiming it as being politically biased even before the council was able to convene for the first time. But now that a group is suing the administration on these same claims, is there concrete proof?
According to a report from Fox News, multiple parental rights activist groups are banning together to sue the Biden Administration for developing the new Parents Council. Fight for Schools, Parents Defending Education, and America First Legal filed the lawsuit yesterday, July 6th. The lawsuit, against the DOE, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, and the Parents Council alleges that the group is violating multiple provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) which mandates that government groups like this must be balanced and transparent.
The new Parents Council came into existence just a few weeks ago, during a year where trust in public education has drastically waned. When announcing the endeavor, the Feds stated that the organization will consist of parents, family members, and caregivers from across 15 nationally represented organizations that possess knowledge and skills on topics for public, charter, private, and homeschools. The Daily Signal reported on some of the national organizations for which representatives were chosen, claiming that groups involved, such as the National Action Network, Girls Inc, Generations United, and more were all chosen because of their stance on contentious topics that generally are advocated by liberals. Therefore, the decision appeared to be a political maneuver.
Because FACA mandates that any federal advisory committee, like this Parents Council, must be balanced in terms of viewpoints and representative of the nation as a whole, the Biden Admin might, in fact, be in violation of these terms. The suing groups claim in their suit that 11 out of 14 of the organizations that represent the council was chosen because of politics. Furthermore, they depicted how these groups donated to the Biden campaign, Democratic lawmakers, fundraisers, and other groups allied with the Democratic party.
Much of the reason for trust in public schools becoming a major concern for families is because these institutions are supposed to be centric, with no political bias. However, teachers’ unions, have already been ousted for being heavily swayed by democrats, and the fear is that schools are no longer concerned about the best interest of students, but only the best interest of politicians. The Parents Council may have been truly formed in an attempt to settle the contentious debates, but given these findings, it may only serve to worsen the situation.
Politics have driven a wedge into education. The Parents Council, whether biased or not, was formed to act as a conduit between concerned parties and school districts, as heated, contentious school board meetings were reported at alarming rates across the nation. But as usual, the same efforts looking to ease frustration, are now only further fanning the flames.
