National School Board Association sent letter to Biden without approval (or knowledge) of their board

Letter went out after "talks over the last several weeks with White House staff."

Remember the letter that the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent to President Biden a few weeks ago that complained about frustrated and angry parents and referred to them as the “equivalent of domestic terrorists?” It turns out that the president and CEO of the organization went rogue together (after direct coordination with White House staff) and sent the letter without the knowledge of their board.

How do we know? My organization, Parents Defending Education, filed public records request to find out.

We were immediately suspicious. Let’s remember that five days after the letter was sent, US Attorney General Merrick Garland fired off an official memorandum from the Department of Justice saying that the FBI would take the lead on the law enforcement response to parents at school board meetings. That lightning fast turn around time (5 days!) is only possible if the fix is already in.

And it was.

Not only were the NSBA board members left out of the loop, but they were then forced to answer for the letter that they did not know about, did not approve and don’t even agree with on the merits.

Adding fuel to this now exploding political fire, an email from interim executive director Chip Slaven, indicates that the White House staff had been in communication with NSBA staff over “several weeks,” and had requested specific information be included in the final letter that was sent.

It really isn’t that surprising that the Biden administration was pulling the strings to get parents of school children to pipe down. The unions have largely been in the driver’s seat since day one of this administration and they have no interest in hearing out parents who are distressed what is going on with their kids’ schools. And Biden doesn’t want to hear it, especially not with his poll numbers in free fall. Between schools that stayed closed way too long only to open with mask mandates and quarantine protocols that fly in the face of sanity and science, parents across the country feel despair. Add to that intrusive surveys asking young children if they are “genderfluid,” the separation of students based on race and ethnicity and resistance to curriculum transparency and, yeah, huge numbers of parents are at their breaking point.

Here is our press release and here is the first comprehensive story out of the gate on this—it has all the documents. (We are still waiting for more but there is already quite a trove for your viewing pleasure!)

Important side note: Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law is the co-founder of Panorama Education, the consulting firm that makes many millions of dollars off of school districts (yes, public dollars) to collect data on students by way of those intrusive and highly personal surveys. They are also deeply involved social emotional learning (SEL) which has morphed into social justice advocacy and equity work.

Panorama scrubbed these pages from their website three hours after I posted them on Twitter but this is what they boast about bringing into schools.

Erika Sanzi @esanzi

If you're wondering why social emotional learning suddenly feels like social justice activism, you're not crazy. That's exactly what it is. It's called Transformative SEL. Read the screenshots below from @PanoramaEd's website:

Erika Sanzi @esanzi

@alexanderrusso @karenvaites @PanoramaEd @JasonTheeHuman I pulled these screenshots off Panorama's website and posted them two days ago. Within 3 hours, this content was gone from the site. CEO is on record saying they are in 100% of schools in 9 states and that he wants to be in 100% of schools in the US.

Erika Sanzi @esanzi

If you're wondering why social emotional learning suddenly feels like social justice activism, you're not crazy. That's exactly what it is. It's called Transformative SEL. Read the screenshots below from @PanoramaEd's website: https://t.co/LOzbHHl93Z

Erika Sanzi @esanzi

Now I feel like I'm going crazy. I took these screenshots from the @PanoramaEd website 3 hours ago and now the "transformative SEL" stuff at the link is gone. That's some quick scrubbing. Lots of districts are scrubbing Panorama stuff from their websites too. Why?

Erika Sanzi @esanzi

If you're wondering why social emotional learning suddenly feels like social justice activism, you're not crazy. That's exactly what it is. It's called Transformative SEL. Read the screenshots below from @PanoramaEd's website: https://t.co/LOzbHHl93Z

The CEO is on record saying they are in 100% of schools in 9 states and that he wants to be in 100% of schools in the US. My state of Rhode Island has signed a statewide contract with Panorama and appears to be moving towards expanding that partnership. (Read about our survey experience here.)

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I leave you with the wisdom and grace (and amazing arms!) of one of my favorite public figures, Condi Rice. I suspect parents would be grateful if this was the message their children were getting in school.

Talk soon,

Erika