On July 6, 2022, Parents Defending Education (PDE), America First Legal, and Fight for Schools and Families sued U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Parents and Families Engagement Council. The lawsuit argues the Council breaks the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) in four ways:
- It isn’t balanced. FACA requires advisory committees to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented,” and to be protected from improper influence by the officials who appoint them or by special interests. The Council fails both tests.
- It operates in secret. The Council has met without public notice, without opening its meetings to the public, and without timely notice in the Federal Register. It has also not made its records and documents available for the public to review.
- It wasn’t properly created. No law and no presidential order specifically authorized the Council, and Secretary Cardona did not publish notice of its creation in the Federal Register as required.
- It avoids oversight. The Department did not file a charter for the Council with the required bodies, including the congressional committees that would oversee it, and did not assign the federal official FACA requires.
Read the full complaint below:
