US Education Secretary Cardona slams parents’ behavior at school board meetings

US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is calling out parents he says are “misbehaving in public” and then “acting like they know what’s right for kids,” stating that he doesn’t respect their actions.

Cardona made the comments in an interview on the state of education in the U.S., including the recent Supreme Court decisions on race-based admissions and President Biden’s attempts to relieve student debt.

During the sitdown, Cardona was asked to expand on prior comments that public education was “under attack.”

His remarks generated fury on social media, where his comments were interpreted as an insult to concerned parents who have spoken out at school board meetings across the U.S. against COVID mandates, critical race theory and books with too much sexual content.

“I’ve been in education, you know, about 25 years. Not including the time I was in higher ed as a student. I’ve never seen it where it is now,” Cardona replied.

“There was civility. We could disagree. We could have healthy conversations around what’s best for kids,” he said. “I respect differences of opinion. I don’t have too much respect for people that are misbehaving in public and then acting as if they know what’s right for kids.”

Cardona went on to say, “Or people that have a problem when we’re trying to provide some support for those who are buried in debt complain about a 10 thousand dollar support for thousands of their constituents but are Ok taking over a million dollars in loan forgiveness themselves as an elected official.”

“That hypocrisy — I want to call it out at the top of this conversation because there is a team that is fighting for kids and a team that is fighting against kids.”

Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily went on X to hit back at Cardona, saying he “openly dismissed thousands of American parents who have been speaking out at school board meetings.”

Neily said Cardona’s comments indicate he does not respect differences of opinion.

“Actions speak louder than words – and they reveal that Secretary Cardona does not, in fact, respect differences of opinion,” she said in a statement to Fox News.

“Look no further than the fact that in 2022, Cardona’s Education Department chose to shut down its faux ‘parents council’ stacked with rubber-stamping elites rather than add any members who would provide viewpoint diversity, and was named by a board member of the NSBA [National School Boards Association] as the instigator of its now-infamous letter.”

The NSBA sent a letter to Biden in September 2021 asking for parents protesting at school board meetings to be federally investigated, claiming school officials were facing threats and violence at meetings. 

Most significantly, the NSBA requested in its original letter that parents’ actions should be examined under the PATRIOT Act as “domestic terrorists.”

After the NSBA sent the letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum instructing the FBI to take the lead on a task force to address threats against school officials, including creating a centralized way to report such threats.

The NSBA eventually apologized for sending the letter and stated that such a move won’t happen again.