Integration Funds and Radical Educational Ideology in Minnesota Schools

Monday, 16 November 2009 00:00 Written by Sheila Kihne

For those of you following  my research on Pacific Educational Group, you will know that when I first identified they were working in Eden Prairie Schools back in August, I asked this question:

Is there any quid pro quo going on when our Superintendent is speaking at Mr. Singleton's conferences?

I have my answer.  Yes, there is.

I received the Eden Prairie Schools e-newsletter last week and saw this note:

Superintendent Melissa Krull and Forest Hills Principal Connie Hytjan recently received Summit Recognition Awards at the Pacific Educational Group Summit for their extraordinary passion, practice, and persistence for leading Courageous Conversation and working to achieve racial justice and educational equity. Their work has been instrumental to our district and the equity work taking place at Eden Prairie Schools.

Here's the list of Eden Prairie Schools attendees to Pacific Educational Group's "Summit for Courageous Conversations" at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore last month:

1. Melissa Krull, Superintendent
2. Connie Hytjan, Principal Forest Hills Elementary
3. Marilee Hoch, Principal Cedar Ridge Elementary
4. Nanette Yurecko, Principal Eden Lake Elementary
5. Elizabeth Linares, Principal Eagle Heights Spanish Immersion
6. Jill Schlotz, Former School Board Member

Here's the agenda.  Here's the program. I have blogged about one of the Keynote Speakers, Gloria Ladson-Billings already...she's written the forwards to books by both Bill Ayers and PEG's owner Glenn Singleton-- his book "Courageous Conversations" is the basis for the Diversity training that PEG sells to our schools. 

Another Keynote speaker was Radical Educator Antonia Darder.  If you'd like to see a little bit of the Radical Educational Ideology that your tax dollars is paying for...read Ms. Darder's 2008 "Iraqi War" piece in her University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign newsletter where she laments the lack of violence among anti-war protesters.  If you want to get a taste of what our Minnesota educators listened to in October, then check out the video on her own website of a keynote address she gave at the National Association for Multicultural Education....it's very long.

http://www.darder.org/video/antoniaweb.mov

Some highlights :  "Capitalism is the root of domination" (she rails against capitalism throughout the speech),  there is an "undemocratic redistribution of wealth in this country".  On the less polite side of her keynote address, Ms. Darder say is "This is Fu-ked!" and "I cannot accept this bullsh-t is real!", "this sh-t is ugly!"  "what really pis-es me off.." Standardized testing is "cultural invasion and economic exploitation"  She calls out the military in this speech (about education) and the height of her anger is at its peak she calls for "material retributions for its destructiveness" from the United States. 

Glenn Singleton was- of course- another keynote speaker.  His company, PEG, uses radical educators as sources for their books, their training materials and their conferences.  Peruse the program and you can see that Minnesota Schools comprise the leadership of a large number of training sessions that PEG put on at the Summit.  At least two dozen Minnesota educators attended the conference.

All trips for Eden Prairie Schools were taxpayer funded with the exception of former Board Member, Jill Scholtz's trip, who attended on her own dime.  EP Schools (unlike the other districts who have responded to my data requests) chooses to note what costs come out of their Integration Funds and what costs come out of District funds....it makes no difference really, it's all taxpayer money.  But they noted that 2009 SCC conference attendance was paid for out of Integration Funds.   

The total cost of the trip was $8685.58 and was paid for by these Integration funds, which are sent to the District by state taxpayers.  I've referenced the non-partisan 2005 State Auditor's report before about the total lack of accountability and results tied to these funds.  Nothing since 2005 appears to have changed.   Take a look at how the $800,000+ is spent here in Eden Prairie.

They posted their Integration Fund Budget up on their website a while back, after I made a request for a copy, it's buried on the hard-to-use website, but here it is:

Eden Prairie Schools Integration Budget 2009-10

You can see there's $80,000 dedicated to paying for PEG-related costs this year..."Beyond Diversity"is their training, this doesn't include District funds that will be spent.  Since 2007-2008 School Year- when PEG entered EP Schools- $53,258 has been spent directly with PEG.  $20,978 in 2007-2008 and $32,280.  What's harder to determine are indirect costs...like paying staff to attend PEG-related training. (Another question for the district that will take weeks or months for an answer...)  Regardless, the costs are obviously ramping up...sort of like another Minnesota School District who- I theorize- introduced PEG to Minnesota, Hopkins Schools.

Hopkins has spent $239,864 with PEG since 2003-- the earliest year of any district.  This does not include the budget for 2009-2010.  Now, guess who won PEG's Prestigious"Summit Recognition Award" last year?  Hopkins Schools.

Remember Communist Hero Che Guevara's poster in PEG's recent promotional video?  That School District was also a winner of last year's award.

Do you see how this works?  Spend a ton of money with this company (Eden Prairie Schools is on pace to beat Hopkins in its spending with PEG,) and you will be rewarded with some resume-padding rewards and recognition.  It's very much like the Mary Kay marketing model whereby one school brings in another and the conferences are used to generate new business and new leads.

$1.2 Million (and counting)...from Minnesota Taxapyers to this one company.  No accountability, no results...just radical educational ideology being spread around. 

There's a pattern to PEG's profiteering off of public schools around the country, stay tuned for more.