Wake County Public School System paid over $3,000 for a two-hour training session on implicit bias

Parents Defending Education submitted a public records request to the Wake County Public School System requesting any training or professional development on “implicit bias” provided to the School Board from September 1, 2023, to the present. Rather than provide PDE with the material, the district directed PDE to a website where information about meetings cannot be accessed due to the website accusing PDE of being a “bot.”

However, the district did provide PDE with a contract dated November 14, 2023, for “Implicit Bias Training.” The district paid Ronda Taylor Bullock and the organization “We Are” $3,038 for the training. Of this amount paid, $2,500 was for “two hour training workshop on implicit bias for the Board of Education,” $500 was for two hours of “preparation / planning time,” and $38 was for “travel fee for one hour.” Goals for the training were for participants to “recognize and challenge their own biases,” “move beyond individual bigotry and bias to a structural and institutional analysis of racism,” and “make historical connections between education & systemic racism.”

The website for We Are has Ronda Taylor Bullock listed as the “lead curator” and “executive director.” The website explains that her “research interests are critical race theory, whiteness studies, white children’s racial identity construction, and anti-racism.” Her husband Daniel Kelvin Bullock serves as the “deputy director.” His “research interests include equity in education, critical race theory, culturally responsive teaching, anti-racist education, social studies education, and social justice project based learning.”