Nearly seventy concerned residents of Estancia Valley attended the Estancia Municipal School District Board meeting on Monday, May 9th 2022; some with students in the district, some whose children attend other districts, some who homeschool their children, some without children and some whose children are adults. So many people were in attendance wanting to speak that the board ran out of forms for public comment, leading others to ask themselves, ‘what’s going on?’
The crowd was gathered in response to the April 27th special meeting’s rushed approval of Title I funding supporting the implementation of, among other things, a new Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program, called “Choose Love.” During a recent budget meeting open to the public, District representatives declared to those present their designs of leveraging the Title I funding to implement the controversial “SEL” program, “Choose Love.”
Estancia residents looked a little deeper into the controversial “Choose Love” program, as well as into the process required for applying for the aforementioned funding. They were disturbed to discover serious problems in the process the District chose to follow when submitting its application for Title I funding. Also discovered were equally disturbing thinly-veiled hints towards, and direct mentioning of a controversial teaching method within the program.
TITLE 1 FUNDING
When applying for Title 1 funding, there are a few requirements that must be followed that require collaboration with the parents and families of the students who attend the applying district; a “Parent and Family Engagement Policy”, and a “School-Parent Compact.”
According to application requirements: “Each Title 1 school must develop, together with parents, a written parent and family engagement policy that is agreed upon by the parents.” There is an extensive list of acceptable uses for the funds received from Title 1, where SEL training / curriculum is only one of these many uses. Parents must be part of the process of deciding how they are to be used.
Also, “schools must develop, with parents, a SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT…and must outline how parents, school staff and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement.” (emphasis added)
Neither the parent and family engagement policy, nor the School-Parent Compact are available to the public, which means they don’t exist. This potentially places the school district in serious legal jeopardy, possibly spanning multiple previous years.
Making false claims in a Federal application could result in serious civil and criminal penalties, and some members of the public in attendance at the meeting reminded the Board and Superintendent of their intentions to pursue such remedies if immediate action was not taken to rescind the allegedly fraudulent Title I application parents declared removed them from a role Title I intended they fulfill.
See for yourself the outcry of the awakened public in Estancia. Video courtesy of James Freeman.
CHOOSE LOVE
The hot topic item of the night, however, was the “Choose Love” Social and Emotional Learning program chosen to be taught by those trained thanks to the Title 1 funding. Hidden under undeniably important values of “Courage + Gratitude + Forgiveness + Compassion” are lessons that teach of things like oppression, equity, social justice and privilege. These are hallmarks of Critical Race Theory (CRT).
Christopher F. Rufo, founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center describes CRT as “an academic discipline, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism.” Where Marxism originally was written to organize and unite the proletariat, or working class, identity-based Marxism works to align the masses based on their identity, be it race, gender, sexual preference, etc. Either way, Marxism creates social division based on the belief that one group is exercising some form of control over another.
According to Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and major proponent of CRT, “In order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist.” This is how identity-based Marxism and CRT intend to introduce and indoctrinate socialism into the hearts and minds of our school-aged children. The citizens of Estancia responded to this curriculum with a resounding “NO!”
COMMUNITY ULTIMATUM
Based on these complaints, the attending community members issued the board and Dr. Cindy Sims, the Superintendent, an ultimatum: Rescind the application for funding the training of this program or face potentially serious consequences. It was made known that action could be taken to file surety bond claims against the Superintendent and some of the board members if the Title I application was not immediately rescinded. Damages recovered by the community through such actions could be used to support “actual education,” as commented by the public.
BOARD / DISTRICT RESPONSE
A couple members of the school board who were present at the School Board Meeting (Randol Riley, Lee Wider, Keith Sandy, Kelsey Collins) expressed disbelief and shock, not knowing what was in the “Choose Love” curriculum. They apologized to the community and resolved to do better in the future. Dr. Sims also admitted not knowing what was in the lesson plans, to which some responded negatively, even suggesting she resign.
The board agreed to convene a Special Meeting May 17th at 6:00pm to discuss the community’s demands. Ultimately, the decision they have to make is to either rescind or face consequences, which could place the District in serious financial peril.
Another story about Title I you might like is: “If the Title I Application was Little League”
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