In the latest twist to an ongoing saga that began last September, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona came under fire last week for his alleged role in soliciting a six-page letter sent from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to President Biden. In this letter, the NSBA sought federal law enforcement intervention to threats aimed at school board members across the country. In emails obtained by the watchdog group Parents Defending Education, an NSBA board member wrote that the interim executive director at the time told officers that the letter sent to Biden was “from a request by Secretary Cordona” [sic].
For his part, Cardona quickly denied orchestrating the letter, but it has done little to tamp down the furor. Forty-one House Republicans have since called for Cardona’s head, and twenty-two Senate Republicans wrote a letter to him demanding answers. The hullabaloo comes a year into Cardona’s otherwise unremarkable tenure, during which he’s earned praise from educators, but low marks from parent groups. (The irony is not lost that his predecessor had the exact opposite to contend with.) It should come as no surprise, then, that the name calling and finger pointing trace back to parents taking offense at being labeled “domestic terrorists” in NSBA’s letter, and the perception of having the DOJ and FBI sicced upon them.
Absent a congressional hearing, revealing media leak, or crackerjack investigative journalism, the question of Cardona’s involvement cannot be definitively answered. Although Congressional Republicans would love nothing more than to see him become the fall guy, they would do well to consider how their thirst for blood might cut both ways. Biden could use this dust-up to his advantage, as conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg has observed, if he fired Cardona and publicly repudiated any sub rosa involvement (e.g., “This is not how we do business in my administration”), in effect creating a Sister Souljah moment. Realistically though, it’s hard to see the president throwing any of his friends or allies under the bus, given his track record of passing on other such opportunities, most recently in Chicago, to say nothing of how nothing seems to be going right for him these days. If anything, the White House might have asked Cardona to solicit the letter, which would make it difficult for Biden to disown a scheme of his own staff’s making.
What’s worrying, if not surprising, about the GOP’s eagerness to defenestrate Cardona is how it memory-holes the tireless, behind-the-scenes advocacy that got him installed over a number of less desirable (to Republicans) candidates in the first place. It’s worth remembering that the former head of the nation’s largest teachers union almost became education secretary. Although that didn’t happen, Cardona’s deputy is as establishment as they come when it comes to opposing the flavors of reform typically favored by conservatives. Which is to say, in the extremely unlikely event that Republicans get their way, there’s little reason to believe that whoever follows would be an improvement in their eyes. In fact, chances are that such a person would be more overtly sympathetic to the teachers unions and their distaste for all things reform-related.
To be fair, the effort to tie Cardona to NSBA’s ill-advised missive is not entirely of the right’s doing. In some respects, he brought this upon himself by initially taking parents for granted during the school reopening process, an oversight demonstrated by the absence of parent leaders from last year’s National Safe School Reopening Summit, which Cardona hosted. This omission didn’t go unnoticed, providing fodder for opponents and helping to fuel the narrative that the Biden administration has been ginning up a “war on parents.” In this sense, the pillorying of Cardona can be seen as the latest in a larger attempt to swing Republicans to victory in this fall’s midterms.
Taken together with last November’s gubernatorial contest in Virginia, Republicans have seen how well school debates can be weaponized, and they view the NSBA/Cardona brouhaha as another opportunity to keep banging the drum. Lost in the overcaffeinated fracas is any granularity or nuance. When it comes to the NSBA letter and the DOJ’s response in particular, this means that an informed and good-faith debate about whether threats against school boards require any form of federal government action is completely out of the question.
Following two years of interrupted and intermittent schooling, the anger and frustration being directed at Cardona is understandable, if not somewhat misplaced. These feelings have been amplified by a growing sense that he and his team have prioritized teacher well-being over student recovery. However, without more conclusive evidence that the fix was in on this—in which case, a serious discussion on repercussions is worth having—Republicans should spend less time attacking Cardona and more time pursuing a serious agenda that responsibly addresses the many hurdles our students and families still face.
