Former congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci reacted to the Tuesday morning news that the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) was severing ties with the National School Boards Association (NSBA).
“Ohio parents and children are suffering because Mike DeWine has done nothing to protect them from the onslaught of unconstitutional COVID mandates and dangerous CRT indoctrination all across the state,” Renacci said in a statement. “Whether it is his Vax-2-School scam or appointing 7 out of 8 members of the Ohio school board who voted to approve CRT in our schools, DeWine’s assault on our children can no longer stand. As your governor, I will never impose any unconstitutional mandates and I will stop CRT from brainwashing our children in the classroom.”
The OSBA’s termination of its membership was shocking and sudden, but the group’s board of trustees cited the NSBA’s letter, penned to the White House, asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate parents who spoke out at school board meetings nationwide. The letter suggested that these parents had the potential to be a violent threat, but only cited nonviolent disruptions.
It prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to write a memorandum, directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate parent protestors.
“The Board of Trustees’ decision was prompted by NSBA’s recent letter to President Joe Biden requesting federal intervention at local school board meetings,” OSBA Chief Executive Officer Rick Lewis said of the group’s termination of its affiliation with its parent organization.
“We were not informed of or asked for any input into the creation of the letter sent to the president. We believe in the value of parental and community discussion at school board meetings, and there is tremendous value in allowing and encouraging the public to have meaningful input into the decision-making process,” he continued. “We believe the letter from NSBA leadership demonstrated how out of touch the national association is with the concerns of local school boards and the principle of local control. Because of that, OSBA no longer sees the value of continued NSBA membership.”
Many conservative parents have been protesting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and transgender bathroom policies at school board meetings nationwide.
Some of those parents, especially in Virginia which has become the epicenter of such protests, felt that the DOJ was attempting to label them as domestic terrorists.
In a congressional hearing last week, Garland admitted that the DOJ did no investigation of its own before directing the FBI to investigate the protests, and that it simply took the word of the NSBA.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jim Renacci.” by TEA Party Cheer. Background Photo “Classroom” by Wokandapix.
