Biden Administration Disbands Overtly Partisan ‘Parents Council’ Following Parents Defending Education Lawsuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Department of Education announced it will disband its illegal National Parents and Families Engagement Council, following a lawsuit filed by Parents Defending Education (PDE), America First Legal (AFL), and Fight for Schools and Families.

In July, PDE, AFL, and Fight for Schools and Families sued the Department of Education and Secretary Miguel Cardona for creating the Council in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). FACA requires the federal government to ensure its committees are balanced and free from inappropriate influence. It also requires the government to give adequate public notice of a committee’s activities. PDE sued the Biden Administration for failing to follow those requirements when it established the Council. 

Read more about the Council’s members and the allegations surrounding them here.

PDE is proud to have partnered with America First Legal and Fight for Schools and Families to secure this massive victory for parental rights.

Statement from Nicole Neily, President of Parents Defending Education:

“The fact that the Biden Administration chose to shut down its virtue-signaling parents council – rather than add any intellectual diversity – speaks volumes. Students do best when their families are involved in their education – and it should be a goal at the federal, state, and local level to bring us into the process, not to shut us out when our perspectives and values differ. Parents will not be used as window dressing to advance radical policies, and we will do everything in our power to protect and defend our children from those who would do them harm.”

Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel:

“This is a significant victory for the American people. It was just a little over a year ago that the Biden Administration, through Attorney General Merrick Garland, made the decision to target parents for speaking out at school board meetings. Our lawsuit targeted their faux “National Parents and Families Engagement Council” and the Administration’s attempt to use it to paper over their open hostility towards parents and families. While we continue to seek justice and accountability for the issuance of the Attorney General’s absurd October 2021 memorandum that initiated this whole sequence of events, we are tremendously proud to have partnered with other concerned patriots to effectively end the Biden Administration’s faux Council.”

Statement from Ian Prior, Executive Director of Fight for Schools and Families:

“The Biden Administration has done everything in its power to silence the voice of parents who are standing up on behalf of their children against the Education Industrial Complex. This faux parents council was nothing more than the administration trying to rig the system once more by stacking the deck with the very special interest groups that awakened parents across America to their long game to politicize public schools with a far-left, anti-parent agenda. This is a major win for parental rights and should serve as a message to the Biden Administration – we have only just begun to fight for our children’s future.”