COMMUNITY REIMAGINED
“Community” Is A Reimagined Cover For The Cycle Of Fraud
We’re still here. You know what else is? DEI. No, Blackrock and National Association of Independent School (NAIS) Schools have not dismantled DEI. We told you long ago, it’s just been rebranded. Even the word “rebrand” has been rebranded to “reimagine.” DEI has been reimagined to Community and Belonging. For those having trouble seeing Einhorn is Finkle: “Community” is the new DEI. “Community” is a new Community. For the new Community to take full shape, the old and traditional community must be destroyed. Lahaina, Asheville, Eaton, Pacific Palisades – whether native, Appalachia, urban working class, or coastal elite – are all traditional, multigenerational communities with strong bonds. These communities had to be destroyed to usher in, to reimagine our allegiances – not to our community, but to the new Community – the Community of Global Citizenship.
With edicts like the Principles of Good Practice and board member trainings, NAIS turned Independent X School into a cult of Community so subtly we barely noticed. In true cult fashion, we must pledge fortunes to belong, our children will be programmed, and we will be banished if we ask questions. Questions like – Where is our money going? This is perhaps the biggest question as NAIS Schools announced tuition increases of another 4-6%. While Steinbeck and Twain have fallen to the wayside for “graphic novels” (comic books) about child refugees (a sad fact in our world, but still the height of open borders demagoguery), NAIS Schools are investing ever increasingly in PE, real estate, various funds, and “international” investments. In 2022, Latin School of Chicago (IL) had $54M in various funds including PE and international equity funds; Spence (NY) had over $41M invested in PE; and Horace Mann (NY) had nearly $69M in “alternative investments.”
This is not necessarily new in the field of elite schools. The NY Times spotlighted back in 2017 the use of secretive offshore investments by elite colleges to avoid scrutiny and federal tax liability and allow endowments to amass to new heights. The article emphasized the wealth is concentrated in a small group of elite colleges with about 11 percent of U.S. colleges holding 74 percent of the money. NAIS Schools are no different. Don’t get us wrong – we get that someone’s got to make those management fees, and we’re not claiming Independent X School is engaged in illegal activity necessarily. We’re sure Horace Mann (NY) has $53M of legitimate curricular interests in the Cayman Islands. It’s just a tad suspicious that Independent X Schools perpetually cry poverty. Andover’s Investment Committee Chair claims its $1B+ endowment is “still undersized.” NAIS Schools certainly believe in their mandate for “equity.”
The problem does not stop there. Under the direction of NAIS, Independent X Schools have expanded the scope of their financial obfuscation. In the past 5 years, countless NAIS Schools have received millions upon millions in federal funds from programs like PPP and the Employee Retention Credit (part of the CARES Act) – all while NAIS Schools collected increased tuitions and fared better after than prior to the Covid plandemic. Latin School of Chicago’s budget has grown, and its endowment is 25% higher than pre-Covid. We still have no idea how much DEI and other various consultants and executive search firms make or the scope of their contracts. We have no idea how much DEI/Community & Belonging “associate heads of school” make because they are not included in 990 filings of top employees of NAIS Schools. Why are “associate heads of school” not included in the top employees on NAIS Schools’ filings? It’s too obvious to state. NAIS Schools have even received USAID funds with Ashley Hall (SC) apparently raking in $4.2M. We already know our children complete all their academic work on Google Classroom and various EdTech apps so NAIS Schools can conceal their assignments and the extent DEI is embedded into the curriculum. Is it any wonder NAIS Schools have no compunction at obscuring their finances?
By NAIS’ own admissions, NAIS Schools (after decades of NAIS command) are in violation of federal laws as correctly interpreted by the Trump Administration. NAIS Schools have been flaunting racially exclusive affinity groups, participation in POCC (NAIS People of Color Conference) and SDLC (NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference), racial discrimination and segregation in employment, and the like, in violation of Titles VI and VII well before elite law firms received letters from the EEOC for violating federal civil rights laws. Add into the mix accepting millions in federal funds, and the risk to their 501c3 status escalates. Not only are Independent X Administrators liable for such harms to the reputation and financial sustainability of Independent X Schools, so too are Independent X Trustees for failures in upholding their fiduciary duties as outlined in a recent demand letter from Boies Schiller to Latin School of Chicago. The timing of Latin School of Chicago CFO’s resignation sure was convenient.
While the most elite NAIS Schools have tens and hundreds of million or even billion-dollar endowments, the majority of NAIS Schools are in financial trouble. Clearly NAIS isn’t doing what should be its most basic job. Still, what do shady investments and faulty business practices have to do with a Community of Global Citizenship? Just look at USAID. The greater the enterprise, the greater the opportunity for fraud. The greater the opportunity for fraud, the greater the purported mask of virtue that must exist to conceal the fraud. Reimagining cities, reimagining institutions, reimagining Independent X School, like USAID, is just another scheme to take advantage of and cover up the cycle of fraud. Importantly, accreditation is a function of the cycle of fraud as it has nothing to do with academic outcomes, instead pertaining only to the “business of schools.” This is one reason NAIS cannot be permitted to establish an endowment.
Community provides cover for the cycle of fraud. Under the guise of diversity and Community, Independent X DEI/Community Administrators reign over admissions teams and have increased recruitment of lower income and immigrant families to decrease institutional knowledge and intergenerational ties. Newcomers lack institutional knowledge and culture. They do not ask questions because they do not know what questions to ask. They do not know what questions to ask because they do not know how things used to be done, how things should be done, and how things are being done. Their lack of foundational understanding coupled with their indebtedness for being at Independent X School, much like an open borders strategy to increase the Democrat voting base, compels fealty to one regime – the new Community.
Community is fifth dimensional warfare for compliance. Elite schools, like elite towns, have powerful constituencies. Take the case of Mahmoud Khalil. The Judge on the case, Jesse Furman, is a Dalton (NY) alum, as is his brother Jason Furman who served as Obama’s top economic advisor. Jesse Furman’s wife, Ariela Dubler, is the headmaster at Heschel School (NY). The strong cohesion and loyalty that was traditionally the foundation for these elite schools and towns resulted in high levels of trust in “experts” and institutions that are now being used against us. Do not fall for it. Feigned incompetence, weaponized “good intentions,” and claims of the moral high ground provide bad actors plausible deniability to evade responsibility. Restricted airspace so Biden could visit his grandchild, Newsom giving interviews in the Palisades within hours of the fire, reservoirs without water, faulty hydrants, overpaid DEI mayors/fire chiefs/water czars, and skyrocketing taxes are no different from headmasters at NAIS Conventions, grading for equity, Challenge Success, overpaid DEI directors/wellness chiefs/Klingenstein Fellow headmasters, and skyrocketing tuitions. You don’t think Independent X Schools teach kindergarteners the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals for curricular strength, do you?
Why do we still care? X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in 2019 after attending WEF as then Chairman, Advertising & Client Partnerships for NBCUniversal, “Transformation is happening – whether we like it or not.” That may be, but the fight to determine what kind of transformation is being waged now. After decades of following NAIS, this is where Independent X School has landed: suicides, sexual assaults covered up, lower academic standards, questionable financial management, and “Communities” without community. In the new Community where Directors of DEI (now Community and Belonging) reign supreme, no one cedes power; it must be taken from them. We are the stewards of our multigenerational, traditional Independent X Schools. These are our institutions, our towns, our country. It is our duty to fight off invasion. It’s time to break free from the grip of NAIS and retake our sovereignty.
Shits & Giggles
