We Did it: The controversial letter Republicans won’t quit mentioning

Mar 07, 2022

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images

GOP LEANS ON NSBA LETTER — During the week of the Texas primary, GOP candidates leaned into targeting transgender children's rights and honed in on outrage over a controversial letter conservatives say likens the actions of angry parents at school board meetings to "domestic terrorism."

— Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with more than a dozen Republican attorneys general, sued the Biden administration Friday to force it to release correspondence related to a September letter from the National School Boards Association. The letter, which has been taken down from NSBA's website, called on President Joe Biden to use federal agencies to stop "threats and acts of violence" on school officials.

— Five attorneys general on the lawsuit are seeking reelection, and one is running for governor. Paxton, an incumbent up for reelection, faces a bitter primary runoff battle against George P. Bush in May. Republicans have been using the letter to rally their base and have hinged onto claims that the White House and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona were involved in the letter's creation.

— "As we've made clear repeatedly, the Secretary did not solicit a letter from NSBA," an Education Department spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement late Friday.

"Some politicians continue to peddle falsehoods and are more focused on manufacturing crises than addressing the real challenges students, families, and schools are facing like helping students recover from the pandemic and get the mental health supports they need," the spokesperson said. "That's what the President is focused on — as he outlined in his State of the Union address — and we would encourage Attorney General Paxton to focus on that as well."

— Texas' primary could be an example of how other GOP primaries may unfold in a midterm election year where the right is rallying their base around education policy issues. Earlier this year, South Carolina GOP Chair Drew McKissick told POLITICO there's "a toxic hurricane surrounding education issues" this year and Republicans are honing in on parental rights in education.

— "Parents don't like being called racists and bigots and homophobes, and in some cases , calling them terrorists, because they start to show up at the school board and ask questions," he said, mentioning the NSBA letter. "That's not actually a successful election strategy."

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Student Loans

ADVOCACY GROUPS URGE BIDEN TO EXTEND STUDENT LOAN PAUSE — A coalition of advocacy groups led by the Student Borrower Protection Center today are is calling on the Biden administration to extend the pause on federal student loan payments before it expires in May. The 210 groups include consumer, labor and religious organizations.

— Federal student loan "payments should not resume until your administration has fully delivered on the promises you made to student loan borrowers to fix the broken student loan system and cancel a substantial amount of federal student debt," the groups wrote in a new letter to President Joe Biden.

— White House chief of staff Ron Klain said last week that the administration is considering an extension of the pandemic student loan relief while it weighs a decision on using executive action to cancel student debt.

In Congress

HOUSE PLANS TO TAKE UP HBCU RESOLUTION THIS WEEK — House lawmakers could vote as early as Tuesday on a resolution that would condemn violence and threats of violence against historically Black colleges and universities and reaffirm the federal government's commitment to "combat violence against HBCU students, faculty and staff."

— Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) , an HBCU stalwart in Congress, introduced H. Con. Res. 70 (117) in February following a series of bomb threats made to more than two dozen institutions. The vote followsmounting pressure on lawmakers from HBCU leaders and higher education groups to put "Congress on record" condemning the threats and ensure the crimes are being "fully and aggressively investigated."

— Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) last week said that federal law enforcement briefed lawmakers on investigations into the bomb threats. The higher education and workforce investment subcommittee chair is still pressing officials to give lawmakers a "classified briefing" so "questions we have as members of Congress will receive satisfactory answers."

— HBCU leaders seek further support from the federal government to protect their institutions. They're calling for a boost in appropriations for HBCU public safety in the next fiscal year and flexibility to use Covid relief funds to bolster public safety more immediately.

SHUTDOWN DEADLINE LOOMS THIS WEEK — Omnibus negotiations are still ongoing as the Friday deadline to fund the government approaches. As of Sunday night, there was no text yet for the 12-bill bundle that would fund the government through September. To meet the deadline, Senate Appropriations ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said a final deal is needed by Tuesday — though he did not rule out the possibility of a fourth short-term continuing resolution.

— Fiscal year 2022 started in October, though Congress has been passing stopgap measures for months at a time to keep the government funded. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Democrats on a private call earlier this month he plans for the chamber to pass the omnibus on March 8.

— Several education groups have urged lawmakers to pass the 2022 spending bills after months of delay. The House's spending proposal for education, which cleared the chamber last July, included a 41 percent boost in funding for the Education Department. The House bill also pumps up the Pell Grant amount by $400 and allows Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program participants and students with temporary protected status to be eligible for the aid.

Supreme Court

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON'S PAST RECUSAL — President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee submitted her questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and began meeting with Senate leaders ahead of the confirmation process. Her ties to Harvard University, however, have prompted speculation as to whether she'll recuse herself from a major college admissions case slated for the Supreme Court's next session.

— Jackson's 149-page questionnaire mentions "Harvard" more than 60 times. Jackson, who could be the first Black woman to serve on the high court, could be forced to navigate whether her ties to the university are cause to recuse herself from an affirmative action case against Harvard that is expected to have broad ramifications for how race is considered during college admissions. The Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit by Students for Fair Admission, which challenges Harvard's use of race in admissions decisions.

— Harvard ties: Jackson is an alumna of the Ivy League institution , but so are a handful of other justices sitting on the bench. She also briefly taught at a Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop in 2018 and 2019 uncompensated.

— Conflict could arise from her six-year tenure on Harvard's Board of Overseers, the university's second-highest governing body , though her term ends this year. She is also a member of the Harvard Black Alumni Society, a group that joined several other alumni groups in submitting an amicus brief in support of the university's race-conscious admissions policies during the early stages of the affirmative action case.

— At least one recusal in her questionnaire could shed light on her move, if confirmed. Jackson recused herself from a complaint that challenged the Education Department's sexual assault guidelines for colleges and universities.

"At the time that the matter was assigned to me, I was serving on the board of a university that was evaluating its own potential response to those guidelines," she wrote, adding that she "determined that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned and that this issue was incurable."

— What's next: The hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee are scheduled to begin the week of March 21.

Cardona Today

Vice President Kamala Harris marches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Vice President Kamala Harris marches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," March 6, 2022. | Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

CARDONA PARTICIPATES IN BLOODY SUNDAY COMMEMORATION — Education Secretary Miguel Cardona joined Vice President Kamala Harris and a handful of cabinet members to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a historic moment for the civil rights movement.

— The day commemorates when hundreds of people marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, demanding voting rights. Dozens of marchers were injured and hospitalized during the march.

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