The Center of the American Experiment has discovered that one Minnesotan plays a key role in the now infamous National School Boards Association (NSBA).
Kirk Schneidawind, executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA), sits on the NSBA Board of Directors as an “ex officio non-voting director.” He is also chairman of the NSBA’s Organization of State Association Executive Directors.
In September, the NSBA attempted to spur federal government action against parents speaking out against COVID mandates and curricula saturated with critical race theory. The organization wrote a letter to President Joe Biden calling on his administration to deal with the supposed “threat” from these parents, whom the NSBA all but equated with “domestic terrorists.”
The Justice Department then publicly vowed to use the FBI’s “authority” to counter the alleged “threat,” which led to widespread conservative outrage.
On Oct. 4, the Minnesota School Boards Association’s Twitter account retweeted a link to the DOJ statement responding to the letter. Interestingly, the MSBA’s account bio now contains a disclaimer which says that “retweets/postings of news articles are for informational purposes and are not necessarily endorsed by MSBA.”
This disclaimer was not included in the organization’s Twitter bio on Oct. 18, the last time the page was archived by the Wayback Machine.
Nearly one month after writing its letter to Biden, the NSBA Board of Directors apologized for the letter’s inflammatory language in an internal memo to affiliated state school board associations.
“On behalf of the NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter. There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance. We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations,” the memo read.
A significant number of state school board associations left the NSBA after hearing about the letter.
Another upshot is that school board candidates across Minnesota who ran on anti-critical race theory and anti-COVID mandate platforms also experienced resounding success in this week’s elections. Several of them even won seats in Democratic areas.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Kathryn Green, chairwoman of the Austin Public Schools Board, resigned her position on the NSBA’s Board of Directors in response to the letter to President Biden. Learn more here.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
