EXCLUSIVE — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is launching an investigation into the California school that used $250,000 in taxpayer money to fund a “Woke Kindergarten” program despite its dismal academic performance.
The Washington Examiner obtained letters sent by Cassidy, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, in which he questioned whether there was impropriety in federal and state approval for public funds to be used for the program at Glassbrook Elementary School, as the move would have had to be approved by government regulators.
“Congress does not appropriate funds to support schools so that activists can use them to train teachers to push a radical political agenda on young students,” Cassidy noted in the letter. “Instead of focusing on providing ‘all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and … clos[ing] educational achievement gaps,’ teachers at Glassbrook have reportedly stated that the Woke Kindergarten program is ‘rooted in progressive politics and activism with anti-police, anti-capitalism and anti-Israel messages mixed in with the goal of making schools safe, joyful and supportive for all children.’”
Cassidy sent letters to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and “Woke Kindergarten” founder Akiea Gross.
Earlier this month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that taxpayer money was used to fund Gross’s nonprofit group at Glassbrook, for which the “primary objective” was to “disrupt whiteness,” at the same time the school’s math and reading scores were some of the worst in California, with math proficiency dropping 14% from 2022 to 2023 and reading dropping 16% in the same time frame. The school reportedly scores at less than 4% student proficiency in math and has less than 12% of students reaching their grade level proficiency in English, according to a press release from Cassidy’s office.
After national backlash against the program, the school terminated the contract with Woke Kindergarten, and Hayward Unified School District spokesman Michael Bazeley said the decision was due to “widespread media attention, the mischaracterization of the Woke Kindergarten work, social media posts by the vendor and the public response.”
Gross has posted on social media that the United States and Israel have “no right to exist” and has said she would like to see a world “free of” them. “Y’all are the villains. We’ve been trying to end y’all,” she added.
Cassidy’s investigation is looking into how the taxpayer funds were allocated toward Woke Kindergarten in the first place, as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires oversight and approval of “comprehensive support and improvement” plans, which open special funding to low-performing schools. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Glassbrook has been on the CSI list since 2020, only marginally improving in 2022, and then reaching the lowest performance level again this school year.
CSI plans are required to be developed by schools in conjunction with local administrators and the school district and must then be approved by state education officials.
“This means that if Glassbrook and Hayward District personnel included Woke Kindergarten in Glassbrook’s CSI plan, California Department of Education (CDE) officials should have reviewed, approved, and signed off on the use of Woke Kindergarten, and DeptEd should have ensured that California was following its statutory obligations,” Cassidy wrote to Cardona.
Cassidy added that the use of federal funds on this program is “another example of an oversight failure” by Cardona’s department, citing a Government Accountability Office report from January identifying the department’s CSI monitoring as a “major ‘weakness.’”
The letters demand answers about different aspects of the process from Cardona, Thurmond, and Gross.
Cassidy is seeking answers from Cardona about the department’s oversight process for CSI plans, whether the department has contacted the California Department of Education to obtain Glassbrook’s CSI records, and an action plan from the department for how it will improve CSI oversight.
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Cassidy is looking to receive a comprehensive list of public schools that are recipients of federal improvement dollars and also requested Gross’s services since January 2020, as well as Woke Kindergarten lesson plans, recordings, and assignments.
Cassidy is giving Cardona, Thurmond, and Gross until March 7 to respond.
Read the letter to Cardona here:
2024-02-22 BC to DeptEd (Wo… by web-producers
Read the letter to Thurmond here:
2024-02-22 BC to CDE (Woke … by web-producers
Read the letter to Gross here: