The Biden administration is under a barrage of criticism from parents nationwide and it is not relenting. Parent’s rights groups are suing the administration because the Department of Education created a new parents’ council, which the groups argue is politically biased and violates federal law.
The groups Fight for Schools, America First Legal, and Parents Defending Education filed a joint federal lawsuit against Biden’s Department of Education, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, and the newly-created National Parents and Families Engagement Council, as Fox News reported.
Apparently, the intention of the lawsuit is to have the courts stop the council from meeting in secret because it violates federal transparency guidelines until it abides by these guidelines.
The council’s creation in June was meant to discover “constructive ways to help families engage at the local level” and help “facilitate strong and effective relationships between schools and parents, families and caregivers.”
But parents’ rights groups claimed that it will be a rubber-stamped council run by the political Left and lacks transparency. The lawsuit simply stated Cardona “selected members that are agreeable, not balanced.”
Of the 14 organizations selected to be members of the council, 11 donated to Biden, Democratic Party lawmakers or other affiliated groups and causes.
The lawsuit claimed the council’s membership violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), such as having a “fairly balanced” representation of viewpoints, because the council’s members are Biden allies and close to 80% of the councilmembers donated to Biden and other Democratic Party politicians.
The suing groups said, “To have a fair balance of viewpoints and competent deliberation on students’ needs, there must be fairly equal representation from both sides of the political spectrum.”
The council also allegedly violated another FACA provision, which requires the public availability of records, reports, transcripts, and other documents produced for council meetings. None of the aforementioned documents are available for public review, the lawsuit claimed.
Parents Defending Education President Nicole Niely said, “The creation of this rubber-stamp council shows that the Biden Administration is desperately trying to whitewash its flagrant disregard for American parents by pretending to finally listen to families’ concerns.’
Neily added, “Sadly, they’ve merely shown that they really only want to listen to the views of their political allies and not the vast majority of average parents – which has become pattern and practice for this group of ideologically-motivated activists.”
