Orange County Schools Equity Department is Not Inclusive to All
The Equity Department is obedient and pays its allegiance to solely left leaning organizations.
The Equity Department of Orange County Schools in Hillsborough, NC has the following banner on their webpage:
On appearance they claim to be intentionally inclusive, however looking a bit deeper it is apparent that the Equity Department prefers to intentionally partner, contract and use resources with only left-of -center organizations, non-profits, and businesses with a focus on only racial equity. By doing so they do not provide support for the diverse student population in Orange County.
There are many more inequities among students besides race. If the Equity Department’s framework is central to only racial equity how effective are they at handling other inequities such as disability, exceptional students, gifted students, low preforming students, income or homelessness? OCS defines equity as “ensuring every student has the right support and services to succeed in school and life. Having a district focus on equity helps us identify and remove barriers and find pathways of support that meet the needs of all OCS students”. Sounds good. The purpose of the Equity Department is to provide this support through services, yet how can it be possible to support all students when they focus only on racial equity? Further supporting a focus solely on racial equity is the Equity Task Force (ETF) of Orange County Schools. Members consists of parents, educators, central office leaders, community members, superintendent and students. Upon inception their explicit focus has been on racial equity.
Beginning with the organization, Race Forward, the Equity Department uses their resources to guide their work, decision-making process, and to prevent racial discrimination and inequities in Orange County Schools. This is front and center on the Equity Department’s webpage.
Race Forward (also known as Applied Research Center) is a left-of-center organization that helps people take action toward racial equity. They host conferences in support of left-progressive racial and identity-politics efforts and co-sponsor the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, a partnership of local governments that support liberal racial and identity-politics policies.
Race Forward is funded by Open Society (Soros), Ford Foundation, Novo Foundation (Buffett), Kellogg, Kresge, Hewlett, of which all are grant-making non-profits who donate to largely left-of-center organizations. Race Forward provides grants through the Invest Together Fund, their sister initiative. Funding for this fund is provided by Schott Foundation for Public Education, Race Forward and NYU’s Metro Center. Key investors are William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation and Schusterman Foundation
Race Forward initiated the national project H.E.A.L Together. H.E.A.L. Together provides tools and trainings for organizing in schools and communities for educational equity. Their main goal is countering those bringing “culture wars” to schools under the guise of "Critical Race Theory," banning books and censoring educators who teach about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Groups they target are Moms For Liberty, Moms Across America, or any other group they believe to be conservative, right-wing, or have a differing political stance. By partnering with H.E.A.L. Together you will pledge to commit to,
“Fighting back against those who would deploy divisive narratives for their own political gain–whether they are harmful narratives about people of color (Black and Indigenous people in particular), immigrants, LGBTQ people, people who are disabled, and other marginalized people; or false narratives about the work of equity, inclusion, and justice” and “Working to build a just, multiracial, pluralistic democracy so that every person has the freedom to thrive.”
This is a contradicting statement at best as Race Forward has their own political gains going on. By every person they only mean those who align with their narratives about people of color, immigrants, LGTBQ people, disabled, other marginalized people and those that do not question their work.
We recognize how the far-right is using mis- and disinformation to reverse the progress we’ve made to create more equitable and inclusive public schools and a more just, multiracial democracy. They seek to divide us by using the spectre of “wokeness” to attack our teachers, our students, and the people that care about them. They incite moral panic over issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation and they scapegoat communities who have fought for equity and racial justice by casting them as “threats.”
We’ve been here before. We recognize that these “anti-woke” culture war tactics are part of a 50+ year strategy by the far-right to undermine democracy and ensure “minority rule” after the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement. Schools have always been a prime target for these culture wars. Under the guise of “protecting children,” they incite these culture wars to distract and divide us so that a powerful, wealthy few can 1) privatize public schools; 2) gain more power and wealth for themselves; and 3) ultimately, stifle education that enables learners from all walks of life to understand, question, and change the world.
One could say it is comical that Race Forward calls out the powerful and wealthy while they are funded by powerful and wealthy non-profits. Instead of perhaps working together with the groups and individuals they want to counter or try to gain some understanding, common ground or collaboration, Race Forward/H.E.A.L Together would rather create more division; the very thing they claim they wish to end. This mentality crosses over into the Orange County School’s Equity Department as they are utilizing Race Forward and H.E.A.L Together as guiding principles.
North Carolina has its own chapter, H.E.A.L Together NC. They define themselves as a working coalition to help align like-minded groups addressing urgent school board threats. This chapter was created and funded by Down Home NC, Education Justice Alliance and CREED (The Center for Racial Equity in Education).
CREED also has a working relationship in Orange County Schools. The Equity Facilitator at Orange County Schools, Kumar Sathy, received a fellowship from CREED in 2022-23. He can be described as a fierce co-conspirator in the effort to dismantle educational oppression. CREED is a left-leaning critical race theory-aligned nonprofit in North Carolina, they offer professional development programs to educators and activists and equity audits. The former director of CREED, Dr. Roger Cleveland, founded and is president for Millennium Learning Concepts, which was hired to conduct the equity audit at Orange County Schools.
H.E.A.L Together NC launched the movement Public Schools Strong, with the goal to counterbalance extremism from Moms For Liberty and push for Democrat votes. H.E.A.L Together NC recruits and organizes members as Public Schools Strong to attend board meetings and give public comment.
Perhaps you have seen the presence of Public Schools Strong (PSS) at the Orange County School Board meetings. The members wear light blue shirts with a red heart and the text, “Public Schools Strong.” You may also have noticed that OCS Board member Jennifer Moore is a supporter, as she donned the T-shirt at a school board meeting, as well as Carrie Doyle. PSS uses the following narrative to recruit members and support:
“Public education is under attack by right wing extremists. They are stoking culture war fears to try to undermine and defund our schools. Bullying, censorship, and harassment are not the values that represent our schools or our communities. We are organizing because we are tired of this phony outrage.”
It is clear by this statement that the only voices and culture that should be in public schools are the ones that they deem righteous and acceptable. If individuals or groups question policies, curriculum, or spending that PSS supports, then they are labeled an extremist. Rather than trying to be inclusive and represent the entire community outside of their special interests, they would rather call names and create false narratives.
Down Home NC , creator of H.E.A.L Together NC/Public Schools Strong, is a lobbying organization founded to promote Democratic candidates in rural North Carolina and left-of-center policies. They partner with left-leaning groups such as, People’s Action, Blueprint NC and Equality NC. Co-Directors of Down Home NC are Dreama Caldwell and Todd Zimmer. Additionally, Down Home’s Statewide Education Strategist, Todd Warren, was a member of Organize 2020, who organized racial and social justice protests for the N.C. Association of Educators (NCAE). Warren, a campaign strategist, is the founder of North Carolina for Safety and Truth and Reason in Schools (NCSTARS) that advocated students be required to wear face masks and get the covid19 vaccine. He also served as president of Guilford County Association of Educators (GCAE) where they rallied to keep schools closed due to covid19 and require the covid19 vaccine. He also coached the Orange County School board members in a special called board meeting in January 2022 to unanimously vote to retain obscene sexual library books in school libraries.
Education Justice Alliance, also creator of H.E.A.L Together NC/Public Schools Strong, is a left leaning non-profit that “works to address systemic inequities within the education system that disproportionately impact Black & Brown students, and those with disabilities.” They claim this can be achieved by removing law enforcement from schools, no longer suspending students and making schools a safe zone for illegal immigrants. They actively recruit children and parents to become social and racial activists by paying them. Letha Muhammad is the Co-Executive Director. EJA receives grants from the Invest Together Fund, funded by Race Forward. If you are keeping up, remember Race Forward guides the OCS Equity Department.
Additional left leaning organizations that the Orange County Schools Equity Department contracts with and utilizes resources from are Panorama Education, Pacific Educational Group (Courageous Conversations, Beyond Diversity, DELT, LEADS, SOAR), SPLC Learning for Justice, We Are, Intercultural Development Resource Association, MILO Edu., GLSEN, One Orange, and Trevor Project. Of concern is that the current OCS Chief Equity Officer, Lee Williams and the past Chief Equity Office, Dena Keeling both are employed by one of these outfits while serving Orange County Schools. Another concern is that all these organizations’ work is focused on racial equity, sexual identity or sexual orientation. Where are the partnerships and contracts with organizations to support equity for students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, low-income students, AIG and gifted students, students below proficiency levels, or students who are homeless?
If the end goal of racial equity is to improve academic proficiency for students of color; one would expect to see amazing results due to the Equity Department’s heavy monetary investment and work on racial equity training, professional development for teachers and admins, racial affinity groups, racial equity surveys and audits, renaming schools that are racist, hiring staff based on race, and auditing school libraries for culturally destructive texts. They have been working on closing the achievement gap for years, what are the results? Data from organizations selling their products to could prove racial equity resources and training closes the achievement gap does not exist. Is it working or are taxpaying families just victims of the billion dollar sector of racial equity?
Now that the relationships and connections of the numerous left leaning organizations has been discovered and seeing that they have a predominant presence in the public school sphere and realizing they actually have nothing to do with education, you many ask yourself why does the Orange County Schools Equity Department only use left-leaning organizations and political organizations for content, support, services and resources? Why not use organizations that are truly nonpartisan, those that have no political or ideological agenda where all students can be represented and heard with a true focus on equity and academics?
The Orange County Schools Equity Department strives to create a tribal mindset with a one group think ideology to keep their agenda in place, to pump out social justice warriors.
To achieve this, they need to mold the mindset of students by creating programmed social activists who will then go on to vote for the politicians who support and identify as Democrats and Socialists. In turn this will keep the same powerful and wealthy elites in place, who will continue to launder their money though large grant-making non-profits into “grassroots” organizations that infiltrate schools and communities with services and programs to churn out like-minded “robots” who will continue to vote to keep them in control. This will result in no diverse thought or free thinking individuals who will be easier to control. This my friends sounds like Communism. Subscribers to said “grassroots” organizations fail to see that they are just pawns being used in a much larger game. It is no longer about educating our children in academics and citizenship, that agenda has disappeared. It has been replaced with political activism to feed those in control.