The Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) has dropped its affiliation with the National School Boards Association (NSBA), while in the meantime, a parental rights advocate wants school districts to withdraw from the MSBA.
“I believe school districts should have the same morals, values and compass as their local community but because of this state association, everybody's walking in lockstep with each other,” said Andy Wells, the Missouri chapter president of No Left Turn in Education. “What is good for Springfield, St. Louis or Kansas City may not be good for other school districts.”
MSBA left the national association last year amid a national controversy involving the NSBA implying in a Sept. 29, 2021 letter to President Biden that parents were “domestic terrorists” in trying to advocate for their children at school board meetings.
“I spent 23 years active duty and another nine years as a contractor fighting against terrorism, fighting against tyranny, fighting against fascism and I love it when I get called a fascist,” Wells told the St. Louis Record. “I just laugh because that is what I spent my career doing fighting against socialism and communism and there is absolutely no way that a mom speaking up for her child or a dad speaking up for his child at a school board meeting is terrorism.”
Wells has three children who attend school in the Houston R-1 School District in Texas County.
The NSBA released a report last month that included findings from an outside law firm that was commissioned by the association to review how the Sept. 29 letter came about.
The letter, signed by NSBA interim executive director Chip Slaven and president Viola Garcia, asked for federal law enforcement and other assistance.
"A couple of people have, across the United States, made some inappropriate comments and some threatening statements but, for the most part, there were no threats ever made, and all of a sudden, after that came out, my little local school district of 1,018 kids had one or two of our city police officers in the school board meeting because it was recommended by the state school board association that they have police officers at every meeting," Wells added.
The MSBA did not respond to requests for comment.
“When we start having too much up top control or authority, school districts lose their sense of identity,” Wells said. “I believe in a lot more local control. I believe in a lot more parent control and the state association wants more state-level control.”