Minnesota House Republicans responded to the formal announcement that the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) withdrew from the agreement with the national affiliate, the National School Boards Association (NSBA).
Statement from House GOP Education Leads Reps. Kresha and Erickson ⬇️ #mnleg pic.twitter.com/Dr06aj0cGt
— MN House Republicans (@mnhousegop) January 12, 2022
The move to withdraw follows a letter from Republican legislators as well as concerned parents applying pressure due to a letter from the NSBA to Attorney General Merrick Garland that asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate parents at school board meetings for “domestic terrorism.”
State Representative Ron Kresha (R-Little Falls) and State Representative Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton), said in a joint statement that MSBA made “the right decision.”
“This action sends the message that parents will not be treated as the enemy when their only goal was to advocate for the wellbeing of their students,” the representatives said.
They called the treatment of parents by the NSBA “appalling.”
According to the Minnesota House Republicans, Minnesota is the nineteenth state to withdraw from the NSBA, in addition to a dozen others that have “condemned or distanced themselves” from the national group over the letter to Garland.
Sarah Ronchak with Open Schools USA, a national organization that “advocates for children and their rights to an education,” celebrated the decision.
“I called for action on October 14, for people to start pressuring their boards to leave the NBSA,” she told The Minnesota Sun.
Ronchak added, “I am extremely glad to see this has finally been a success for our state. This is a step in the right for validating parents on being wrongfully called domestic terrorists. As parents, we have a right to be informed and involved in our children’s education.”
Ronchak said she believes the solution to schooling and managing school boards is at the local level, not at the national level through large groups like the NBSA.
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Minnesota School Boards Association” by Minnesota School Boards Association.
