Prominent conservative parent activists praised the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday for issuing subpoenas to several former officials of the National School Boards Association over the group's 2021 letter comparing protesting parents to domestic terrorists.
The subpoenas issued Monday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) seek to compel testimony from Chip Slaven, the former interim executive director and CEO of the NSBA, along with Viola Garcia, the group's former president, over their role in sending a September 2021 letter that asked the Biden administration to use the Patriot Act to investigate parents protesting at school board meetings.
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The letter was the impetus for an October 2021 memo by Attorney General Merrick Garland that directed the FBI and the DOJ to investigate threats against school board members. FBI whistleblowers later revealed that the agency was investigating protesting parents under a "threat tag." Reports later surfaced that the White House had coordinated with the NSBA on the infamous letter, which the group later retracted.
Jordan also subpoenaed Nina Jankowicz, who had been tapped by the Biden administration to lead a now-disbanded "disinformation governance board."
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Ian Prior, a senior adviser at America First Legal and the executive director of Fight for Schools, said that the latest subpoenas were encouraging and urged House Republicans to continue to investigate the administration's coordination with the NSBA.
"It’s encouraging to see the Republican leadership on the House Judiciary Committee continue its work to get to the bottom of the apparent collusion between the NSBA and the Biden administration to intimidate parents standing up to their unaccountable and anti-First Amendment local school board," Prior said. "Parents will be watching these developments with a keen eye.”
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Nicki Neily, the president of the parent activist group Parents Defending Education, thanked Jordan and the Judiciary Committee for investigating the Biden administration's efforts to "chill ... families' political participation."
"It has been over 17 months since the attorney general of the United States signed his memo weaponizing the Department of Justice against his fellow citizens — a memo which has not yet been retracted, even though the National School Boards Association letter which ostensibly provoked such a reaction was, indeed, withdrawn," Neily said. "The American people deserve answers — and our government officials who commissioned such a heinous document must be held accountable. We are grateful for Chairman Jordan’s dogged pursuit of justice in the face of such intransigence by the executive branch and the NSBA.”