What is the Consultant Report Card?

In the spring of 2021, when we launched Parents Defending Education, a national nonprofit, parents started flooding our in-box with tips about disturbing trends they were seeing in the classrooms. An elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania had a book, “Not My Idea,” in the classroom about “whiteness” being a pact with the devil. A teacher in Beaverton, Ore., told other teachers in “anti-racism” training to “evolve or dissolve.” Around the country, one contractor, Panorama Education Inc. asks young students about their gender identity and sexuality. And an assistant principal in Ohio instructed students in a schoolwide email to lobby local leaders for legislation she supported. 

Every week, we got scores of reports from distressed parents, students, teachers, grandparents, principals–just about anybody and everybody touched by the divisive teachings that have sprung from the controversial ideology called critical race theory.

At Parents Defending Education, we wondered how such a poison had penetrated our educational system so quickly and so deeply. We started investigating, following the money and connecting the dots. For this four-month investigation, we interviewed about 200 people and reviewed about 200 hours of trainings, school board meetings and “equity” team meetings. We filed 207 public records requests with public school systems under the Freedom of Information Act and other laws, scoured about 5,000 pages of documents and studied about 30 vendor databases.

While about one of three school districts, or 79 school districts, provided information, two of three school districts, or 128 school districts, have not yet responded with information. 

What we discovered should shock any parent and taxpayer. We know we have just captured the tip of the iceberg. Send us a tip on anything we missed. 

We call this our Consultant Report Card. 

Summary (as of Dec. 8, 2021, 2:30 p.m.)

• Total dollar amount of contracts found nationwide — $21,240,557.45
• Total # of states and the District of Columbia investigated – 51
• # of FOIAs filed – 208
• # of FOIAs responded – 80
• Total # of consultants and contractors identified – 124
• Total # of states with contracts – 29
• Total # of districts with contracts – 96 
• Total # of contracts documented – 256
• Total # of students in the districts with contracts – 2,876,000

Top 10 Contractors Identified

1. Panorama Education Inc. – $5,200,684.50
2. Pacific Educational Group Inc. –  $3,350,923.45
3. National Equity Project –  $2,879,655
4. Newsela Inc. –  $1,907,186
5. Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium Inc. –  $1,064,115
6. Akoben LLC –  $833,605.50
7. Gholnecsar Muhammad | HILL Pedagogies LLC –  $756,771
8. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) –  $750,100
9. Nicole Anderson and Associates Consulting –  $479,250
10.  Insight Education Group Inc. –  $434,050

Some people call the network we have documented the “Woke-Industrial Complex.” Others call it the “diversity industrial complex.”

Whatever you call it, it’s big money.