U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called out American parents who he said “misbehave in public” and act as if they “know what’s good for children,” adding that he doesn’t have much respect for them.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Cardona commented on the state of education in the U.S., including the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban race-based admissions and the president’s attempt to ease student debt.
The angry response to Cardona’s comments was immediate as the online crowd thought he was taking shots at the parents who were speaking out at school board meetings across the country to push for COVID-19 mitigation mandates and critical race theories and sexually explicit books from the school’s forbid their children. libraries.
Regarding the currently charged nature of the current education debates, Cardona said there was “civility” during conversations in which different points of view were expressed.
‘We cannot agree. We could have healthy conversations about what’s best for kids.”
‘I respect differences of opinion. “I don’t have much respect for people who misbehave in public and then act like they know what’s good for children,” he said.
‘I respect differences of opinion. “I don’t have much respect for people who misbehave in public and then pretend they know what’s good for children,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in an interview that attracted widespread reaction.
Cardona added that he also has no respect for “people who have a problem while we’re trying to provide some relief to those who are in debt, complaining about a $10,000 bailout for thousands of their constituents, but are okay with to acquire more than a million dollars. in loan forgiveness himself as an elected official.”
“That hypocrisy – I want to mention it at the top of this conversation because there’s a team that fights for kids and a team that fights against kids,” he said.
Nicole Neily, the president of Parents Defending Education, showed open disdain for the secretary and his position on X (formerly Twitter).
Cardona, she wrote, “fired thousands of American parents who spoke out at school board meetings.”
“Actions speak louder than words – and they show that Secretary Cardona does not, in fact, respect differences of opinion,” she told Fox.
“Look no further than the fact that in 2022, Cardona’s Education Department chose to close its faux ‘parent council,’ full of rubber-stamping elites, rather than add members who would provide diversity of views, and was appointed by a board member of the NSBA (National Association of School Boards) as the instigator of her now infamous letter.’
In September 2021, the NSBA sent a letter to the Biden administration asking the federal government to investigate school board meetings where parents spoke out.
The letter suggested that school officials faced threats of violence during school board meetings and asked that the parents be investigated under the PATRIOT Act as “domestic terrorists.”
After receiving that letter, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department issued a memorandum directing the FBI to lead efforts to create a task force that would address the threats against school officials and create a centralized way to address such to report matters.
After a huge outcry over the letter, the NSBA apologized and said it would not do something like this again.
The father was left beaten and bloodied after being ejected from the Loudoun County School Board meeting in June 2021.
Smith was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He said he tried to restrain himself after teachers falsely claimed they had not received reports of sexual abuse in the girls’ bathroom.
The outrage surrounding the letter coincided with the momentum that led to the election of Virginia’s governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, who had devoted much of his campaign to fighting for parents’ rights to have a say in education of the children.
One of those parents was Scott Smith, who was previously arrested by law enforcement and given a 10-day suspended sentence for disorderly conduct after he was dragged out of a school board meeting for protesting a high school policy after his teenage daughter was raped by a transgender student in the bathroom.
Smith’s daughter was raped by an unknown 15-year-old who became known as the “boy in a skirt.” A month after the May 2021 attack, the Loudoun County school board held a meeting stating that gender fluid bathrooms were not an issue.
Smith became enraged, and in a viral and long-lived video, he confronted school and law enforcement officials and was ultimately charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Earlier this month, Governor Youngkin announced he had pardoned Smith, saying his administration had “righted a wrong.”
‘He should never have been prosecuted here. This was a father standing up for his daughter.”
“His daughter was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom, and no one did anything about it.
“This was a gross miscarriage of justice.”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said, “Mr. Smith did what any father would do when he formally granted a pardon earlier this month
Youngkin said the school “covered it up” and told Fox that parents should have the final say in their children’s education.
‘Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do: stand up for their child,” Youngkin told Fox News on Sunday.
“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday.”
Cardona’s comments about parents believing they know what is best for children directly contradict Youngkin’s position on the issue, and it is believed that Cardona was referring to people like and including Smith when talking about those who behaved at school board meetings.