Follow the Money

Report Details

What is Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc.?
Based in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. was founded in 1992, as an education non-profit dedicated to “increasing access to a high quality education for culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners.” The organization states that its mission is to “promote excellence and equity in education to achieve social justice.”

As of Sept. 9, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education listed the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium as the organization managing one of its “regional technical assistance centers” through ae Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium project, the “Center for Education Equity.”

According to its 2019 990 IRS filing, it had $2.17 million in total revenue, up slightly from $2.12 million the year before.

The Free Beacon reported that, of the $19 million the group has raised since 2001, $17 million is from “taxpayer-backed cash,” according to a review of its financial filings. Its most recent tax forms showed that from mid-2018 to mid-2019, the group spent $1.6 million on “equity projects” to examine and address systematic policies and practices, about $233,000 on “family engagement” projects to build partnerships among schools and parents, and about $74,000 on youth projects. Susan Shaffer, the group’s president, received more than $200,000 in salary, and Maria Del Rosario Basterra, a vice president, was paid more than $140,000.

In May 2007, the organization said it hired Shaffer Law Firm PLLC, where now-president Susan Shaffer’s husband is a partner. In its 2018 990 filing, the organization said it paid the Shaffer Law Firm PLLC $36,000 for “ongoing legal services,” noting that president Susan Shaffer’s husband worked there.

Their areas of focus include race, gender, religion, national origin (described as “English learners”), multicultural and compliance. Their areas of need include educational equity, English learners, family, school and community engagement, school climate and culture and school transformation.

What services does Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. offer?
Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. advertises a number of services, including:

• “Education equity audit.”
• “Technical assistance,” including “Achievement LInking Innovation,” “Vision and Engagement (ALIVE), to craft proposals for schools for a 21st CCLC grant for out-of-school programs,”
• “Community Resource Mapping” to document a “strengths-based approach for asset mapping,” related to early childhood, “educational equity,” English learners.
• “Comprehensive Needs Assessment.”
• “Culturally Responsive Family, School and Community Engagement” to “improve school reform and academic achievement.”
• “Culturally Responsive Leadership,”“Cultural Responsive Pedagogy,” “Parent Academy Planning and Monitoring” and “Parent Leadership Trainer-of-Trainers,” including teaching parents on advocating for “access to rigorous curriculum.”
• “Policy and Procedural Reviews,” “Positive School Cultures and Climates” and “Strategic Planning and Program Design.”
• “Educational equity.”
• “Professional learning.”

Its partners include some of the powerhouses in the woke-industrial complex.

They include:

• Center for Schools and Communities
• The Education Alliance: Business and Community for Public Schools
• Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center
• National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
• NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
• SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance

On May 13, 2021, Nyla Bell, senior education equity specialist, led a webinar, “Good Trouble: Understanding and Supporting Youth Activism for Equity and Justice,” with Michelle Nutter, a nearby consultant, and others. On June 29, 2021, Marianna Stepniak led a webinar, “Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Centering the Needs of Transgender and Non-binary Students at School.”

What K-12 work has Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. done?

The contracts are housed in the U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, or OESE.

DELAWARE

Christina School District
Among it services, it says CAFE “promotes: (1) proven strategies that increase school outreach in diverse communities to establish common vision; (2) engagement of culturally diverse communities as resource partners, including those of color, economically disadvantaged, English learners, with disabilities, foster families, and the homeless; (3) identification and mitigation of cultural bias obstacles to student development and academic achievement;

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The work included services at Smithsonian-DCPS Magnet Schools, Robert Brent ES and Stuart Hobson MS. The work is documented here.

MAINE

Kennebunk

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. does work in the district, according to a local media article.

Portland

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. does work in the district, according to a local media article.

Regional School Unit 5

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. does work in the district.

$25,000 for year 2 of Mid Atlantic Equity Consortium contract to include professional development for all staff.

Regional School Unit 21

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc.: Jan. 10, 2020, report on focus groups.

Scarborough

The agreement with Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. is in combination to work that the district’s staff is doing with the Cultural Competency Institute, a program hosted by the Maine School Management Association, Kazilionis said.

South Portland

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. does work in the district.

Westbrook Public Schools

In early March 2021, in Maine, Westbrook Public Schools Superintendent Peter Lancia told a reporter with the local American Journal that an audit of the school district would be funded from grants to Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, and the American Journal reported “there will be no costs to the school district, Lancia said.” The school district published an “Equity and Opportunity in the Westbrook Schools” document, as part of a “One Westbrook: A City for All” campaign it began earlier.

MARYLAND

Baltimore City PS

Calvert County PS

Charles County PS

Frederick County

Montgomery County Public Schools

Montgomery County Public Schools has spent a total of $941,680 between Nov. 10, 2020, and Feb. 25, 2021, on a contract and two contract extensions with Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium to do an “anti-racist system audit,” according to documents obtained through a public records request.

Contract

The records for the contract are in the school district’s online database for contract awards. On Nov. 10, 2020, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland awarded a $454,680 one-year contract to Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium as its “Anti-racist System Audit Consultant” for fiscal year 2021. The goal of the audit was to create “equitable outcomes for every student’s academic and social-emotional well-being,” according to a memo from local superintendent Jack R. Smith. The county filed its request for proposal in October 2020.

Business Contract

According to the 135-page contract with Mid-Atlantic, received through a public records request, there are several ethical issues raised with the consultant being deemed Montgomery County officials so they can get access to personal student data. This also happened with Panorama Education in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Contract

Montgomery County Public Schools spent $250,000 on Feb. 25, 2021, FY21 contract extension of Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium Inc.’s “MCPS Systemwide Anti-racism Equity Audit.”

Contract

Montgomery County Public Schools spent another $210,000 on July 20, 2021, for its FY22 “MCPS Systemwide Anti-racism Equity Audit.” 

Other funds Montgomery County Public Schools has spent on teaching ideas of critical race theory to students and staff include:

• $6,500 for 45-minute talk by Jason Reynolds.
• An estimated $12,000 for the purchases for 1,200 copies of Stamped. We are pressing Montgomery County for the cost of Stamped, which they didn’t release, but I’ve put an estimate down of $12,000, based on a similar purchase in Arlington County.
• $420 for the purchase of 70 copies of This Book is Anti-Racist. 

MICHIGAN

Detroit Public Schools

OREGON

South Portland School Department