We Don’t Need No [Marxist Critical Theory] Education.
Like Whigs at Boston Harbor, our children are not going to take it! On May 30th, the school body of Andover (MA) found messages of protest around campus. “WAKE UP!!” “DO NOT HATE THE ARTIST HATE THE INDOCTRINATION.” “DO NOT ‘JUST’ BE ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL.” We won’t highlight Andover (MA) Headmaster Raynard Kington’s hypocrisy immediately condemning as “a disturbing case of vandalism” messages protesting indoctrination and suppression of free thought at an institution of education after half of American society, including our schools, praised national riots where statues were torn down, monuments and small businesses were destroyed, and thousands of people were assaulted. We will point out the irony that as criminals loot with abandon and men pretending to be women leer at naked girls in women’s locker rooms, our children in institutions of education are the ones afraid to speak freely to such an extent that a few committed an act of anonymous vandalism. Any hooligan could have painted “Andover sucks.” Look at what they chose to state. Should they have selected another medium for their message? Perhaps. Perhaps the medium was adopted to emphasize the hypocrisy inherent in the subject matter. This hypocrisy is even more glaring considering administrators twisted the situation into one of “safety and well-being of [Andover] students” despite the nonviolent nature of the act and message and the fact that the students who wrote the message are the ones who feel unsafe, not those who freely wield their repressive tolerance. This is the Independent X School campus environment brought to us by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) accreditation.
We Don’t Need No Thought Control.
We were once a nation heralded as a city upon a hill, a light, a beacon under God. No longer. Through the 1960s, 98% of Americans believed in God. In 2011, the number decreased to 90%. By 2022, only 81% of Americans believed in God. Through the decades, the wisdom of our founders has become distorted, and the messages of our churches and temples have been perverted. When Americans stopped trusting God, stopped espousing Judeo-Christian values, and stopped using basic common sense, the void was filled by “experts” anointed as such by credentials. “In Fauci we trust” became the mantra of a certain class. (Ironically the motto of Fauci’s private Roman Catholic alma mater Regis High School (NY) “deo at patriae pietas christiana erexit” translates to “He raised Christian piety to God and country.”) Now, more than ever, Americans believe in experts and credentials, including supposed credentials given to institutions under the label of accreditation. We posit the higher the education level, the greater the belief in accreditation. It starts from the earliest time. How else can anyone explain the ridiculous baby consulting industry? Only in America do Ivy League graduates think newborns must be fed only at strict time intervals rather than whenever they are hungry.
Accreditation, like DEI/SEL/ESG, initially sounds like a good idea. Proponents claim accreditation provides parents with better knowledge of school quality and propels Independent X School to improve and be accountable. But improve how and accountable to whom? In reality, when one accreditation organization controls the standards for thousands of institutions, transforming thousands of institutions is as easy as capturing just the one accreditation organization. And therein lies the problem. Since we began highlighting the cartel of NAIS, a national spotlight started shining on the fallacy of accreditation. In Why Private Schools Have Gone Woke, Aaron Sibarium reported, “The [accrediting] association’s priorities tend to dominate the market because it has a near monopoly on training tools, market research, and other services that help private schools remain competitive. In order to join the association and fully access its services, schools must be accredited by an association-approved organization.” The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which represents more than 6,000 U.S. colleges and universities and recognizes six major U.S. regional accreditors, recently advocated using its accreditation powers to push DEI/SEL onto its member institutions – something NAIS has been doing to Independent X School for decades. WSJ acknowledged “the accreditation threat is a political power play that deserves to be denounced by the Legislature and Governor.” Meanwhile, Florida Governor DeSantis has been fighting DEI by tackling accreditation in higher education observing correctly how “The role that these accreditation agencies play … are effectively self-anointed,” such that they “have an inordinate amount of power to shape what is going on at these universities.”
No Dark Sarcasm In The Classroom.
It’s no surprise accreditation in higher education has received more attention than private primary and high schools. Higher education involves much larger numbers of people and federal funding. But as always, the proof of concept for using accreditation to transform institutions was NAIS and Independent X School. Recall NAIS has become Independent X School’s self-appointed union and one stop shop for search firms, job banks, trans legal guidance, trustee training, global citizenship, and every other policy and procedure for Independent X School, many consolidated in the Principles of Good Practice. In offering a myriad of services to its member schools, much like the welfare state to its residents, NAIS has made itself psychologically indispensable to Independent X School. It is also through these services and partnerships that NAIS has used accreditation to radicalize every system and structure of Independent X School with DEI/SEL. While state and regional associations (CAIS, NYSAIS, SAIS, etc.) perform the actual accreditation of Independent X School, NAIS sets the accreditation criteria and oversees these state and regional associations through its commission on accreditation, called the International Council Advancing Independent School Accreditation (ICAISA).
For accreditation, Independent X School must complete a self-assessment study over a 10-year cycle which contents are framed by NAIS criteria and policed by a visiting team from the state/regional accreditation association. NAIS’ criteria for accreditation standards mandate: “The standards require a school to demonstrate that its educational programs, instructional practices, and institutional culture are informed by relevant research regarding how students learn and the knowledge and capacities they will need to lead purposeful and constructive lives.” Every aspect of the “relevant research,” “how students learn,” “knowledge” needed “to lead purposeful and constructive lives” are defined and dictated by NAIS (and suspiciously aligned with UNESCO). Purposeful lives according to NAIS are those engaging in woke activism.
NAIS openly admits its agenda. Its articles and programs encourage gender indoctrination, sex ed, and race-based affinity groups for children as young as three, eliciting backlash at schools like Dalton (NY) when first graders were taught about masturbation and Fieldston (NY) and Brentwood (CA) when Jewish students were prohibited from creating Jewish affinity groups. Other NAIS articles attack the "myth of white innocence" and emphasize "the importance of pronouns in lower school. Still other NAIS articles claim trustees’ only duties are to fundraise and rubber stamp headmasters and that parents must never question Independent X School. NAIS’ recognized accreditors have adopted its ideology almost verbatim. The Association of Independent Maryland and D.C. Schools, for example, expects that "diversity practice" be "an organic part of every area of school life." NY State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) laid out its agenda in the very title of its February 2020 accreditation presentation “Leveraging Accreditation to Identify and Advance Strategic Priorities” before stating, “The governing body establishes policies that reflect diversity and cultural competency and ensures that these qualities are reflected in decision-making and governing body membership.”
Hey! Teacher! Leave Our Kids Alone!
Accreditation has clearly degraded the academics and culture of Independent X School, but it has also degraded governance and fiscal accountability. The rise in lawsuits against Independent X School filed by families and employees and the increase in lawyers being appointed Independent X Board Chairs illustrates this point. A lawsuit filed against St. Anne’s (NY) after an 8th grader dismissed for “academic challenges” hanged himself maintains St. Anne’s made failures in basic communications and adherence to its own stated policies so egregious they led to the child’s suicide. A new lawsuit against Latin School of Chicago (IL) filed by a long-term Teacher-Parent alleges LSC exhibited hypocrisy, administrative failure, financial fraud and incompetency, and a total lack of regard for the well-being of children. A lawsuit filed by former Charleston Day (SC) Trustee-Parent – a fiduciary, alleges even more egregious financial wrongdoing and retaliation in its use of Covid relief funds. At Jamie Dimon’s alma mater Browning (NY), a school that touts its accreditation-compelled commitment to DEI principles: “Our commitment to equitable practice and to social impact is not a supplement to the rigorous curriculum; rather, it is a force that permeates and enhances all teaching and learning,” a Trustee-Parent – another fiduciary, detailed having to hire attorneys to address Browning’s malicious incompetence including its failure to correct the accurate amount of the family’s $1M gift already paid by the Trustee, refusal by the headmaster to follow up and later meet with him, and repulsive retaliation against his children.
This Browning Trustee-Parent said it best: “Browning has degenerated into a morass of dysfunction, misfeasance, and unfairness.” He also remarked on dwindling enrollment and other Browning families being forced to hire attorneys to respond to the school’s ineptitude. We can attest this is the case for NAIS Schools across nation. Treasured teachers are feeling stifled and leaving in droves. Headmasters and trustees are engaging in self-dealing. Salaries and benefits for headmasters, DEI directors, and advancement directors have skyrocketed while salaries for teachers have barely moved. Communication and transparency are non-existent as parents are kept blindly busy with hospitality and gala décor. The budget spent on DEI consultants and legal fees increases every year. Tuitions have soared as our children have learned less. In justifying exorbitant tuitions, Myra McGovern, NAIS director of media claims, “Independent schools are people-intensive. The majority of their tuition goes to salaries and benefits.” Yes, the salaries and benefits. Have you taken a look at recent 990s? The outgoing headmaster at Rye Country Day (NY), Scott Nelson, made $2.7M. This was no doubt a major factor for NAIS Board Chair and former Latin School of Chicago Headmaster Randall Dunn’s move to Rye Country Day (after destroying LSC and Nate Bronstein’s life). Some may point to one feature flourishing at certain NAIS Schools: increasing endowments. Horace Mann (NY) holds the largest investment portfolio of the NYC private schools at $159.4 million. Coincidentally, Horace Mann has recently been accused of pay-to-play admissions.
The dysfunction in Independent X School did not appear out of nowhere. Much like our border crisis, dysfunction was manufactured to create chaos to dismantle our institutions from within. Accreditation was the means NAIS used to obtain control over the apparatus and agenda of Independent X School. As NAIS concentrates more power through accreditation, NAIS and its strategic partners increasingly engage in anti-trust violating collusion to infiltrate Independent X Schools with DEI/SEL and squeeze as much profit from Independent X School and Parents as possible much like Blackrock/Vanguard ESG practices. For example, NAIS recommends Independent X Trustees use executive search firm NAIS strategic partner Carney Sandoe to place their next headmaster. Carney Sandoe presents a limited selection of headmasters chosen not for competence but for loyalty to NAIS. Usually, these headmasters are graduates from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia Teachers College and NAIS Institute for New Heads (NAIS equivalent of WEF’s Young Global Leaders Forum). Carney Sandoe negotiates increasingly generous compensation packages to buy loyalty to NAIS and takes a cut of the money. Unqualified to run Independent X School, Independent X Headmasters keep finances opaque, speak in word salads, and gaslight anyone who asks questions – even Trustees. Parents keep donating despite Independent X School’s failings which causes Independent X School to become even more entitled and profligate. Just think about our politicians and bureaucrats who keep failing up – Biden, (Archmere Academy, DE), Harris, Levine (Belmont Hill, MA), and Buttigieg (St. Joseph’s, IN – accredited by AdvancED/Cognia), whose incompetence create intentional institutional chaos, but whose loyalty to the powers that be keep catapulting them into positions of power. The dysfunction is the feature not the bug.
All In All It’s Just Another Brick In The Wall.
Okay but religious schools are fine, right? Yeh, about that. Not sure you remember, but most of our places of worship shut down while staying silent about weed shops and strip clubs remaining open before making us wear masks at services. Turns out our religious institutions and schools are also being captured. Just look at organizations like Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, whose tagline is “Working for workplace religious diversity, equity & inclusion,” praising WEF for its work in religious freedom (“spirituality”). Or remember when Evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land galivanted with NIH Director Francis Collins at WEF and preached the Covidian Fauci gospel to their massive congregations? It follows that as accreditation is the way, the truth, and the life of the DEI/SEL Industrial Complex, there is no shortage of religious accreditation and partner organizations for schools: Cognia, ASCI, CORE, Frienzy, HeartSmart, Springtide Research, SEL4Us, Imago DEI Program, Reconstructing Judaism to list a few. There is accreditation, transformative SEL, Biblical SEL, and emotional wellness for Jews and Christians of every denomination from Lutheran to Reform to Southern Baptist to Roman Catholic.
While Episcopal and some Christian and Catholic schools belong to NAIS, the primary Christian school accreditation organization is the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). ACSI proudly asserts it has been “reimagining” its organization. In 2019, its Strategic Plan reimagined three pillars – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion … we mean: Advancing, Access, and Advocacy. Under Advancing, ACSI’s focus is professional development (teacher/admin indoctrination to line consultant pockets) and accreditation (compliance with the agenda). For Access, ASCI pushes the importance of school choice (holy grail of free government money to line institutional pockets) and researching “new delivery models” in addition to brick and mortar schools (to line EdTech pockets). On Advocacy, ASCI urges more school choice and retention of DC lobbyists, including PR specialists in crisis management (not sure why a Christian school accreditation organization foresees needing more crisis management PR specialists). Folks! These are not the secular Episcopalians who deem church as just another country club (just ask Tucker). These are the Calvary Christians – the Evangelicals.
Skeptical of our asides? ACSI partnered with UnifiEd, “a resource for sustainable, biblical, cross-cultural engagement,” over two years ago to bring DEI to Christian schools “to provide Christian educators with biblically based resources on diversity, inclusion and racial reconciliation.” Jewish schools have partnered with SEL4Us and Reconstructing Judaism which support racial justice through reparations and national repentance to make SEL the cornerstone of reimagined Jewish education. Apparently, you need SEL to be a mensch. The National Catholic Education Association claims: “An excellent Catholic school adhering to mission provides opportunities outside the classroom for student faith formation, participation in liturgical and communal prayer and action in service of social justice.” Springtide Research, whose staff look like a kind of woke anti-Turning Point, researches the religious and spiritual lives of teenagers and young adults through mass data collection. Used by numerous Christian and Catholic schools, Springtide Research declares its primary institutional value as equity and justice, touts its research board as “fully vaccinated,” and lists pronouns for every staff member. But not all these organizations are as open about their intentions and agenda. ACSI deleted a webpage discussing DEI consultants after Undercover Mother tipped off Real Expert James Lindsay who tweeted about it, just like NAIS takes down webpages and tweets after we expose them.
“Radical love,” “racial reconciliation,” “kingdom unity,” “Christ-centered unity,” “Biblical approach,” “God-honoring diversity,” “justice,” “tikkun olam,” “show forgiveness through restorative practices” are all bastardizations of Jewish and Christian concepts reframed through a DEI/SEL lens. “Liberation theology” is just another Marxist critical theory pushing Jesus as some multiculturalist socialist because he hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes without acknowledging they had first repented and followed him as the one true God. Soon concepts like Biblical SEL will be melded with WEF “spiritualism” and Sam Bankman-Fried’s (Cystal Springs Uplands, CA) fraudulent “effective altruism” to pervert further our Judeo-Christian values. In the meantime, if they think they can just slap on some scripture here and there to cover their tracks, they are sorely mistaken. We see them, and we are calling them out. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10. See? Two can play at that game.
Even homeschool academies are not safe from accreditation – a concept that is the antithesis of homeschooling. After gobbling up countless accreditation organizations like AdvancED, behemoth Cognia, which also accredits large public school districts, has been targeting private schools, classical Christian schools, and even homeschool academies so it can mandate DEI/SEL and inject schools with bloat by which it and its strategic partners can profit – just like NAIS. While NAIS is disproportionally influential because of the prestige of the Independent X Schools it oversees, Cognia, as a $115M organization (which had a $10M PPP loan forgiven) with its not-for-profit CEO making $1M+, wields an exceeding amount of influence because of its sheer size and ambition. Just take a look at Cognia’s “Global Commission” governing accreditation standards for K-12 American schools and its performance standards that include all the usual learner-centered, equity, well-being. Just the name “global” commission shows their intent. Then a quick glance at the Commission members shows professors of “social justice,” proponents of virtual school initiatives backed by big Middle East capital, recipients of certificates from the CCP, Deputy Directors of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) overseeing a “worldwide school system,” DC lobbyists, and implementors of “restorative justice” programs. As Cognia and Christian accreditation organizations increase their market share of religious schools, we guarantee the values and teachings at these schools will deteriorate along with academics, governance, and accountability.
I Have Seen The Writing On The Wall.
As third-party accreditation organizations continue to consolidate with each other and acquire more member schools, some states are starting to pass laws mandating that private school children receive schooling “substantially equivalent to the instruction given to minors of like age and attainments at the public schools...” New York State adopted substantial equivalency in September 2022 – a harbinger of what is to come. In addition to requiring EdTech, DEI in curriculum and faculty professional development, sustainability, wellness, and data mining, the New York State Association of Independent Schools’ (NYSAIS) 2022-2023 Accreditation Manual has internalized substantial equivalency requiring NY Independent X Schools to provide “a program of instruction that is substantially equivalent to that which is afforded in the local public schools.” If that isn’t educational Marxism, what is? Meanwhile, NY state has partnered with Stanford to “use NYSED’s existing databases to develop a set of equity indicators New York can use to gauge students’ access to educational opportunities” and “analyze these indicators to understand which are most impactful in contributing to disparities in outcomes, including test scores and graduation rates.” Whoever controls the data controls the world Yuval Harari excitedly presaged.
As more states adopt substantial equivalency, the power of accreditation agencies to impose ideological and structural conformity grows even stronger, increasing monopolistic power and reducing the range of real choice in schools for parents. Libertarians may point to Milton Friedman’s ardent support for “school choice,” but overlook Friedman’s seminal work on the topic was completed in 1955 – long before the development of the accreditation complex. Even Max Eden, research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, admitted in 2021 prior to being cuckolded into school choice chadGPTdom: “[School choice] ignores the structural reality that bodies with veto power have been captured by wokeness." Ironically, even “school choice” increases the power of accreditation agencies and reduces the range of real choice in schools for parents. Take for example Iowa, one of the only states requiring accreditation for private schools. According to Kerry McDonald, accreditation requirements in Iowa have limited the supply of innovative learning models and prevented certain schools from opening. Worse still, there are only six approved third-party accrediting agencies for the entire state, all of which are already or may easily be ideologically captured. It’s telling that early proponents of accreditation lamented Independent X School’s “freedom from governmental oversight” in advocating for accreditation.
As you can see, it’s not just about Independent X School or even NAIS Schools. This is about the entire school system. There are approximately 30,000 private schools and 7,500 charter schools in America. Accreditation creates an entire system whereby the increasingly few accreditation agencies do not merely set ideological agenda, they dictate every aspect of private schools and by extension our children’s lives from tuition rates to required vaccinations and boosters and maintain data on every child, family, and employee. This accreditation system involves a growing list of strategic partner organizations and companies in the DEI/SEL/ESG Industrial Complex profiting off all forms of private (and public) education. The mothership of private school member organizations is the Council for American Private Education (CAPE). CAPE includes NAIS, ASCI, Islamic Schools League of America, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Seventh-day Adventist Church Education Departments, Friends Council-Education, Christian Schools International, Agudath Israel of America, Oral Roberts University, and Association of Waldorf Schools of North, just to name a few. Like shell corporations, there are layers upon layers of organizations. The vast number of seemingly similar member organizations intentionally makes it impossible to decipher which group is a part of which organization and which organizations run which groups, allowing for cartel practices to run rampant and leaving us powerless to stop them. With individual schools being stripped of any autonomy under the accreditation system, it is even more imperative that all private schools – not just Independent X School, cut ties with the accreditation system and become autonomous.
Don’t Think I Need Any [Accreditation] At All.
But here’s the thing: PRIVATE SCHOOL ACCREDITATION IS NOT MANDATORY. Yes, you read correctly – accreditation is completely voluntary except in just a few states. Public schools, public universities, and private colleges must adhere to criteria set by states or be accredited by recognized accreditation agencies because they receive federal funding. In contrast, private primary and high schools in nearly every state are not required to obtain third-party accreditation because they do not receive government funding. Instead, private schools can simply obtain state registration or licensing to comply with state regulations.
Remember, modern accreditation is a relatively new thing. It’s like reminding our children there was a time before cell phones. Independent X School flourished for decades and even centuries before this contrived notion of accreditation. Third-party accreditation and member organizations like NAIS, National Association of School Psychologists, and CAPE were only formed in the 1960s and 1970s when Marxist activists like Bill Ayers (Lake Forest Academy, IL; Klingenstein – Columbia Ed School, NY; Chicago Lab parent, IL) stopped bombing the Capitol and started donning ties to start their slow march through our schools and institutions.
Severing ties with larger organizations is more psychological than anything. As groups assert their independence, more are emboldened to follow. Montana State Library Commission cut ties with the American Library Association (ALA) after the ALA continued to defend pornographic materials for young children under its rein by self-avowed Marxist president Emily Drabinsky. In 2021 and 2022, more than half of all the state school board associations in the country cut ties with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after NSBA’s collusion with Merrick Garland’s DOJ categorizing parents are terrorists. According to an analysis of official documents by Axios, these states affiliations accounted for more than 40% of the NSBA funding by states in 2019, which would amount to losses of $1.1 million annually. The Reagan and Trump Administrations cut ties with UNESCO. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s suggestion the US disassociate from the UN has helped him tie for second with DeSantis in the GOP primary race. Just like the UN, we are the ones paying out our ears only to be saddled with governance, financial, transparency, and leadership issues and receiving absolutely no benefit whatsoever from NAIS. Even companies are increasingly separating from their DEI execs or combining their role with OG Karen – the HR director.
All In All, We Will Not Be Just Another Brick In The Wall.
The move to cut ties with member organizations is even occurring within the accreditation system. We already mentioned Governor DeSantis’ efforts to reform accreditation in the Florida college system. North Carolina’s legislature introduced similar legislation to prevent the University of North Carolina (UNC) System from being accredited by the same agency for consecutive cycles as a way to break up the higher ed accreditation monopoly. Additionally, the Trump Administration reduced the power of accreditors by changing the rules so colleges and universities may be accredited by any regional accreditor. In covering these accreditation battles, the WSJ highlighted how accreditation bureaucrats meddle in internal governance and attempt to usurp the role of university fiduciaries. Does the Editorial Board have the intellectual courage to call out NAIS and its accreditation cartel? We are more than happy to provide the Editorial Board with research. Even the Stanford Review is pushing for Stanford to lose its accreditation to force Stanford to rectify multitudes of issues including self-censorship, mandatory ideological freshman programming, tragic suicide of Katie Meyer, suspension of the (albeit lame) Tree mascot, and (now former) President Marc Tessier-Lavigne purportedly falsifying scientific research. Isn’t it interesting how NAIS Schools have undergone identical issues? (Fascinatingly, it was an 18-year old student who took Tessier-Lavigne down and exposed how Stanford board members who invested in Tessier-Lavigne’s company were appointed to investigate the president.)
It is even easier for private primary and high schools to cut ties with the accreditation system. In higher education only six regional accreditors control access to over $100 billion in student loan funding. Since, with the rare exception, private primary and high schools do not receive federal funding, we are not beholden to the accreditation system. Our schools are also small enough with an excess of dedicated and talented parents to shepherd our schools back to the excellence, communication, transparency, accountability, and trust we used to have at Independent X School. The uptick in articles stressing the importance of accreditation shows NAIS knows accreditation is its vulnerability. It’s been a busy summer for NAIS PR Director Myra McGovern.
How many of our children were retaliated against, how many suicides, and how much financial waste, fraud, and abuse occurred at Independent X School before the policies of NAIS-sponsored accreditation made them places of secrecy shrouded from its own trustees? One thing’s for certain: NAIS takes Independent X Parents as rich sheep who will fund its cartel because we have thus far. No more. Ask for your school bylaws and the 2022 990’s. Read the accreditation standards of your regional accrediting organization. Educate and mobilize. G.K. Chesterton said, “A true solider fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” There is no escape from Marxism. For the love of our children, the only way to save Independent X School is to cut ties with NAIS and disaffiliate from the rouse of accreditation.
Shits & Giggles