WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A federal watchdog sued the U.S. Department of Education for access to records related to special interest groups, including the National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFL-CIO, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Lambda Legal.
“What we requested were records of communications between certain high-level political appointees within the department and organizations that were either former employers of people on the list or were influential special interest groups,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT).
As previously reported in the New York Post, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) swayed the school closing and re-opening guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year.
“The teachers’ unions are an extremely powerful political organization,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline. “They have close contacts with the leadership in the Department of Education and so we believe that it's vital for people to understand and know about the connections and communications and interactions between these types of special interest groups and the leadership in the agency.”
According to Chamberlain, PPT filed the lawsuit after receiving various and ongoing excuses from the U.S. Department of Education, such as "the request is still pending," "I’ll look into these two cases to see if we are able to provide a date certain for when you can expect to receive information," ["t]he program office assigned to search for records responsive to your request is still conducting its search," and "The Department processes FOIA requests in a fi[r]st-in/first-out basis, and your request has been sent to multiple offices, therefore, it will be several months before its completed."
High-level political appointees that were queried in PPT's original Freedome of Information Act request include U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, U.S. Department of Education Chief of Staff Sheila Nix, U.S. Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretaries Katy Neas, and U.S. Department of Education Deputy General Counsel Toby Merrill.
“There are certain circumstances where communication between a government official or a political appointee and their former employer could violate their ethical obligations,” Chamberlain said.
On March 15, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to the heads of agencies and departments within the federal government reminding them of the need for transparency because an informed citizenry is vital to the operations of the country.
"We think it's important for the American public to know which powerful, special interest groups are influencing the leadership at not just the Department of Education, but other agencies as well," Chamberlain added. "We've submitted similar requests to several different agencies. The Department of Education is just one."