Tuesday, 06 October 2009 00:00
Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 October 2009 20:12
I missed this article in the Star Tribune from March of this year which announced that Pacific Educational Group (PEG) is also doing business in Farmington Schools and Rosemount-Eagan-Apple Valley Schools.
The firm is working with 16 Minnesota school districts, she said, including Minneapolis and many of its west-metro neighbors, as well as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and Farmington in the southern suburbs.
Experts are divided about the causes of the racial achievement gap, but money, health, high mobility, teacher quality and a lack of family support are on the list of suspects.
Those things make a difference, Cowdery said, but "we believe that systemic racism is the most devastating factor."
As Glenn Singleton, the consulting group's executive director, put it, "Race is not the only factor. It's the missing factor."
The firm sees candid conversations about race as a key part of erasing the achievement gap, but it's a topic that still makes many teachers uncomfortable. Many wonder, "Are people going to think of me as racist if I talk about this?" said Eileen Klemm, one of more than 100 district educators who have been attending workshops on the subject.
It's hard, too, because "I think that we've believed that we have treated all kids equally," Olson said.
The problem isn't really about blatant discrimination as much as unintentional and institutional racism, according to the consulting group.
Race can color a variety of classroom situations, from grade-school lessons about Christopher Columbus to high school debates about Barack Obama. One big problem is low expectations for minority students, Cowdery said.
"I don't think our teachers are purposefully perpetuating racism, but they have issues," Singleton said. "Until we deal with those issues and give them a safe space to deal with them, they're going to go underground."
And two more districts buy into the scam. I'm waiting to hear back from Farmington schools, but Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan-Schools has spent $43,653.
Columbia Heights School District also got back to me- they've spent $3,288 with PEG.
I also discoverd that PEG has been working with Rochester public schools-- they've spent at least $30,592 according to online records- with PEG.
For those counting, that's at least $845,230 so far from Minnesota Taxpayers for a wholly unproven diversity training scam with no measurable results to demonstrate exactly what PEG's years invading school districts does to close the racial achievement gap. I have the answer though--It does nothing. Nothing, that is, beside putting a lot of money- $500-$800 an hour money- into the pockets of people who make up this garbage for a living.
Oh, did I mention that one of the
Keynote speakers at PEG's Courageous Conversations Summit that starts this weekend in Baltimore is Gloria Ladson-Billings who has worked on
multiple books with "no regrets" domestic terrorist/radical Bill Ayers? She
even wrote a forward to one of his books. Ladson-Billings also wrote the
forward to Glenn Singleton's Courageous Conversations, that's the book that you're paying $38.95 a pop for so that Minnesota school administrators, teachers and staff can put it on their bookshelves at home.
Gloria Ladson-Billings and Ayers are tight. In addition to contributing to many books together, she was the very first signature on a petition to defend Bill Ayers in last year's campaign for President. The petition received notice last fall and was mentioned on "The O'Reilly Factor." One book they both contributed to was called "Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools" part of the "Teaching for Social Justice Series" where the self-acknowledged radical and progressive lambasts conservatives for things like wanting American flags displayed in public schools.
Yes folks, Minnesota is sending at least 25 district administrators, teachers and staff-- on your dime- to this Summit. In the comfort of the Hyatt Regency, they will hear Mr. Singleton, and Ms. Ladson-Billings-- who are represented by the same Speakers Agency coincidentally-- spout off their mantra that "whiteness" is bad, really bad and our white teachers "have issues" which cause some students to do better than others. If we people of white skin don't acknowledge that we are inherently privileged and stifled by our insistence that individualism is an American value, nothing is going to get better in our schools. And don't you dare ask for results to back up their theories, because that would be racist.
Oh, and if you need a keynote speaker for one of your upcoming events, you should check out above mentioned talent Agency because you too can hire, "celebrities, sports figures and athletes, motivational and inspirational speakers, entertainers, musicians, comedians, magicians, business leaders, political speakers, authors and writers, health and medical professionals" AND friends of Bill Ayers! Cool.
