SC school board association leaves national group after push from GOP lawmakers
The South Carolina State School Boards Association is withdrawing its membership from the National School Boards Association after calls from Republican state lawmakers.
The state association made the decision Friday during a special board meeting and began notifying its membership of the decision Monday.
Following scenes and reports of school board members from around the country being harassed over school mask mandates, the National School Board Association in September asked the federal government to investigate and prevent any threats and acts of violence against public school officials.
In the national group’s letter, it said the incidents “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
Republican politicians jumped on the language, saying it was wrong to compare parents upset over mask mandates to domestic terrorists. And after push back from local school board groups, the national association apologized for its original request.
Still, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the Justice Department to look into possible criminal conduct against school board members.
“Aside from an October 22 letter of apology to state associations, NSBA has taken few steps to mitigate the negative impact of the letter on many states including South Carolina,” School Boards Association President Cheryl Burgess and Executive Director Scott Price wrote to their membership. “On the whole, the board felt it was in the best interest of SCSBA’s membership to sever ties with NSBA at once.”
Last week, 36 Republican House members and Gov. Henry McMaster criticized the national group for its request to the attorney general’s office.
“I don’t know if I would want to be a member of an organization that sent the kind of letter that the national organization sent. Now that’ll be up to the local organization,” McMaster said during an interview last week. “But that letter from the national organization to the attorney general was wild, was unfounded, was unnecessary, and showed a deep misunderstanding of the law.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 5:32 PM with the headline "SC school board association leaves national group after push from GOP lawmakers."
