When Americans gather around the table next week, one thing they won't be thankful for -- polls already show -- is this administration. Not even the supposedly popular infrastructure bill can undo the gloom and doom for Joe Biden, who is failing where people feel it most. More than six in 10 Americans think the president hasn't accomplished much -- except maybe ruining the economy, which a whopping 70 percent say is in bad shape. Even his handling of the pandemic, a historically strong issue for Biden, is a net negative now. But that's not why the Left is panicking. His numbers on education are.
For the first time for who-knows-how-long, the Republican Party is within striking distance on a debate that's always been firmly in Democrats' grasp: education. According to a brand new survey from Washington Post/ABC News, the country is suddenly divided over which party they trust "to handle education," with 44 percent favoring Democrats and 41 percent choosing Republicans. As most people who've covered the issue for decades know, "That represents a significant weakening in what has historically been an advantage for Democrats on this question," NRO's Jim Geraghty points out. It's a shift, as voters in Virginia just proved, that has the power to rewrite elections.
House Republican Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) puts the blame square on Joe Biden, who decided to unleash the full force of the federal government on any parent who disagrees with the Left's extremism. Likening parents to "domestic terrorists" just because they object to racist and extreme LGBT curriculum didn't exactly endear the White House to moms and dads of either political stripe. When his attorney general, Merrick Garland, vowed to sic the FBI on Americans who voiced their concerns, that was the "last straw," Jordan believes.
"I think this is going to actually be a catalyst for a reawakening and a focus on freedom in this country. You're seeing it play out. I think that's why the [National] School Board Association (NSBA) said we regret we sent this letter [asking President Biden to intervene in local school board issues]." But Jordan, like most conservatives, thinks Americans deserve to know the backstory. A paper trail already confirmed that White House officials were coordinating with the NSBA weeks before the organization sent its letter to Biden. But "who did they contact at the White House? What was discussed? Did they lay out the whole plan [together]?" Jordan asked. "All of that needs to be dealt with."
He's hoping to raise the questions at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, where he's demanding the NSBA testify. Almost every day, more troubling details come to light about the secret partnership -- like the possible quid pro quo for NSBA President Viola Garcia, who was suddenly appointed to serve on a federal education board right after her association sent the letter. "She got offered a plum assignment on this board at the Department of Education, just two weeks after their letter was initially sent," Jordan told the Washington Times. Coincidence?
"The more [we know]... the worse it gets," Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) shook his head. And while the NSBA did apologize for the letter, Biden's attorney general is stubbornly standing by his threat to parents. Congressman Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) finds that the most unbelievable of all. "This is a weaponizing of the law in this country of the judicial system, and it's just a fear tactic," he told Joseph Backholm on Friday's "Washington Watch." "[W]e've got to fight back. I mean, this administration in nine months has done more damage [than anyone by trying] to silence Americans. And it's not working. That's the good news... a lot of parents have woken up."
Like Jordan, Norman is using his standing on a different committee -- House Oversight -- to pile on even more pressure. On top of the efforts already underway in the Republican caucus, he's calling for a separate probe into the attorney general. Already this month, the House GOP sent letters to almost 100 U.S. attorneys asking what steps our federal prosecutors had taken against parents, based on Garland's memo. "We are continuing to investigate the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity," they wrote.
Biden's inability to make the grade on education with parents has the rest of the Democratic Party worried as we approach the midterm election. The truth is they should be worried, parents have had enough.
If you're one of those parents looking for a way to get engaged, don't miss FRC Action's School Board Boot Camp: Special Elections Report this Friday, November 19 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. (ET). To register, click here.
