White - Education For Live

February 3, 2023

Ohio’s education department is investigating a White supremacist homeschooling network that shares Nazi-related resources

CNN
—

The Ohio Section of Schooling is investigating an on the web homeschooling community following experiences of mothers and fathers sharing messages of White supremacy as instructional resources, in accordance to a state schooling formal with information of the evaluation.

But there is very likely small the point out can do to modify the curriculum, and utilizing and sharing these kinds of curriculum does not violate point out legislation.

The critique is 1 of “compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements,” the official claimed. Less than Ohio law, the state’s Division of Education and learning does not assessment or approve residence university curriculum.

The homeschooling group has much more than 3,000 subscribers and shares content and lesson programs by a social media messaging platform. They share “primarily assets for curriculum tips for elementary aged youngsters,” the group’s very initially concept reads.

“We have fought tough for our ideal to homeschool the small children,” a single submit from December reads. “Without homeschooling the small children, our kids are left defenseless to the universities and the Gay Afro Zionist scum that operate them.”

An additional put up with a “Thanksgiving copywork” assignment confirmed internet pages of handwritten Hitler prices.

In January, as Martin Luther King Jr. Working day approached, a consumer with the monitor name “Mrs. Saxon” posted in the channel, “It is up to us to make sure our children know him for the deceitful, dishonest, riot-inciting negro he actually was.”

“Mrs. Saxon” ongoing in the January article, “He is the confront of a movement which ethnically cleansed whites out of city places and precipitated the anti-white regime that we are now combating to totally free ourselves from.”

“Keep in thoughts that this is a unit examine for elementary ages,” she wrote in bold and underlined font.

These are among a amount of racist, anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and homophobic posts that span back to the group’s development in Oct 2021. Based on an investigation by an on the internet anti-fascist exploration team and resulting media reports, local education and learning officials feel the team is operate out of Higher Sandusky, Ohio.

The state’s instruction office is reviewing compliance with statutory and regulatory needs, having said that a state official informed CNN the department does not critique or approve home faculty curriculum.

Below Ohio legislation, parents are only essential to deliver yearly created notification and assurances, which in accordance to school district paperwork consist of: 900 hours of instruction across topics like language, geography, heritage math, science well being and a lot more, a temporary define of the meant curriculum and assurances the house instructor has a high college diploma or equivalent, or is operating beneath the direction of a person keeping a bachelor’s degree.

An preliminary overview of “anything [the group] could have been a component of” or “applied to at the Department” has not manufactured something therefore much, according to the point out formal.

CNN has achieved out to the creators of the group but has not obtained a response.

Eric Landversicht, Superintendent of the Higher Sandusky Exempted Village College District, instructed CNN, it is their policy “to retain an instruction environment that is free from all varieties of unlawful harassment, and the Board vigorously enforces its prohibition towards discriminatory harassment primarily based on Guarded Courses.”

In a January 30 letter sent to the Upper Sandusky Faculty Neighborhood, Landversicht mentioned he experienced uncovered of the “egregious” allegations a 7 days prior.

“The District vehemently condemns any these methods,” he wrote. But he also wrote that homeschooling mothers and fathers are the ones who are finally “responsible for choosing the curriculum and class of research the parents’ picked curriculum is not sponsored or endorsed by the District.”

Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education and learning Association that represents about 120,000 teachers, faculty and assist gurus in Ohio colleges, instructed CNN “that sort of despise has no put in our condition.” He also emphasized it is “not reflective of the bigger homeschooling group.”

Nevertheless, the inherent deficiency of oversight and accountability in homeschooling generates an possibility, he claimed. “People are deciding on to get rid of them selves and take out their youngsters kind the schooling method,” he mentioned. “When which is the setting you’re in, it opens the doorway to all varieties of folks with all varieties of ideological perspectives to fill that gap.”

It remains unclear whether the state is equipped to intervene unless of course there is “substantial evidence of cessation of dwelling schooling,” according to Ohio law. Only if that evidence bears out would the kid have to be enrolled in college.

Dr. Stephanie K. Siddens, the Interim Superintendent of Community Instruction in Ohio, mentioned in a assertion, “I am outraged and saddened. There is certainly no position for loathe-loaded, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s colleges, which includes our state’s dwelling-schooling community. I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and components staying circulated as described in recent media stories.”

April 15, 2022

White House Announces Theme and Activities for the 2022 Easter Egg Roll

The President and First Girl to Host the White Household Easter “EGGucation” Roll on Monday, April 18, 2022

The White Dwelling declared these days the total application of activities for the 2022 White Home Easter Egg Roll, a tradition dating again to 1878. A trainer for extra than 30 years, To start with Woman Jill Biden produced this year’s party concept, “EGGucation!,” with the South Lawn to be transformed into a college group, complete of entertaining academic actions for youngsters to love.

In addition to the time-honored traditions of rolling and hunting eggs, this year’s White Dwelling Easter “EGGucation” Roll will also attribute a School Dwelling Activity Place, Looking through Nook, Talent Clearly show, Industry Excursion to the Farm, Image Day, a Bodily “EGGucation” Zone, a Cafetorium and a lot more.

In full, around 30,000 individuals will choose aspect in this year’s Easter “EGGucation” Roll, which includes hundreds of navy family members, and the crew customers and households from the U.S.S. DELAWARE, the U.S. Naval Submarine, for which the First Woman is the sponsor. Tickets for the typical community were dispersed to attendees from all throughout the region through an on the net general public lottery.

This year’s party will be damaged into 5 periods, starting at 7:30 AM ET and finish at 6:30 PM ET. Abide by together with the White Property Easter “EGGucation” Roll festivities with #EasterEggRoll and #EGGucation, and the formal @White Household, @POTUS, @FLOTUS social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Added information and facts about this year’s “EGGucational” Things to do and Programming:

EGG ROLL
The custom that commenced it all! Young children will use picket spoons to roll colourful eggs in a race across the South Lawn.

EGG HUNT
Small children will run to discover concealed eggs and obtain distinctive prizes.

School House
The University House place of the South Garden will be complete of exciting instructional pursuits for all to love!

Expertise Clearly show
The Talent Exhibit stage on the South Lawn will aspect some of today’s most “egg-citing” kids’ acts and performances.

CAFETORIUM
Small children and their people will study how to make some tasty treats and then sample seasonal snacks!

Industry Excursion
It is time to head to the farm for a university area excursion! Kids will learn from farmers about how they aid feed our families.

Reading through NOOK
Families will occur alongside one another for some particular story time with children’s textbooks authors, instructors, and some particular guests!

Photo Working day
Family members will keep in mind this day generally with a enjoyable image! Snap a family members picture with the White Dwelling in the qualifications or capture a second with your most loved costumed character.

Physical EGGucation (PE)
Young children of all ages will hop, bounce, kick, run, and throw their way through the South Lawn’s “egg-citing” obstacle training course and preferred college lawn pursuits.

This yr, the White Property Easter “EGGucation” Roll will feature academic things to do, college yard pleasurable, and exclusive performances on the South Lawn, which are supported by (in alphabetical order):

2021 Countrywide Trainer of the Year, Juliana Urtubey
4 Imprint
American Affiliation for the Progression of Science
American Egg Board
Baker, chef, creator, Christina Tosi, Milk Bar
Baltimore Ravens
Beat Refinery DJ Faculty
Chef Stephen Durfee, Culinary Institute of The united states
Children’s E book Writer and host of The Tonight Display, Jimmy Fallon
Children’s Guide Author and singer, Ciara
Children’s Book Author, Jeff Kinney
Children’s E book Writer, singer, and actress, Kristin Chenoweth
Children’s E-book Author Rocco Smirne (age 6) and his mother, Arioth Smirne
Cooper Middle Faculty Concert Band from McLean, Virginia
DC United
DJ Diamond Kuts
DJ Mel
DJs and twin sisters, Amira & Kayla
Duke Ellington Higher Faculty for the Executing Arts scholar and singer, Alyssa Richardson
Jap Significant University Marching Band from Washington, DC
Indiana Fever
Lawrence Corridor of Science: University of California, Berkeley
Very little Miss out on Murals chalkboard artist, Stacy Lazzara
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue
Countrywide Children’s Museum
Operation Gratitude
PBS Young children
PBS Kids Collection Creator (Alma’s Way), Children’s E-book Author and former Sesame Avenue character, Sonia Manzano
PBS Youngsters Collection Creator (Xavier Riddle and the Magic formula Museum) and Children’s Guide Creator, Brad Meltzer
Philadelphia Eagles
Professor of Artwork Heritage and children’s e book illustrator for the White Residence Historical Association, Dr. John Hutton
Sesame Avenue Dwell
Signature Models, LLC / PAAS Registered Trademark Easter Egg Coloration Kits
Singer, songwriter, and actress Sofia Carson
Sweetgreen
The Coca-Cola Organization / DASANI Water
The Nationwide Basketball Affiliation
The National Football League
“The President’s Own” United States Marine Corps Band
The United States Navy Band Sea Chanters (singing the National Anthem)
The United States Air Drive Band
The United States Army Band
The United States Navy Band
The Secretary of the Office of Education and learning, Miguel Cardona
The White Residence Historical Association
The Women’s Nationwide Basketball Association
Virginia Egg Council
Washington Commanders
Washington DC radio temperament Tommy McFly, emcee
Washington Spirit

The pursuing costumed figures (in alphabetical buy) will stroll the White Property grounds, which include:

Disney Characters Miguel: from Coco and Doc McStuffins
Dr. Seuss Characters: Cat in the Hat, and Thing 1 and Point 2
Miffy Bunny
Milkshake the Cow, from the United States Division of Agriculture (USDA)
Paramount Photographs People: Sonic the Hedgehog and Gabby from Gabby’s Dollhouse
Patriotic Mouse, DJ Bunny, and DJ Mouse
PBS Young ones People: Alma from Alma’s Way, Donkey from Donkey Hodie, Daniel Tiger from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Molly from Molly of Denali, Xavier Riddle of Xavier Riddle and the Solution Museum, Puppy from WordWorld, and Elinor from Elinor Miracles Why
Peanuts Characters: Snoopy and Charlie Brown
Peeps People
Poe, the mascot of the Baltimore Ravens
Sesame Road Characters: Rosita and Cookie Monster
Swoop, the mascot of the Philadelphia Eagles
The Nationals’ Racing Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Taft, and Coolidge
Common Pics Characters: The Minions
Warner Brothers People: Ace and Kypto from DC League of Super Pets

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April 11, 2022

Kevin White Named to NACDA Hall of Fame

CLEVELAND (from NACDA.com) — Former Duke University Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White has been named to the Nationwide Association of Collegiate Administrators of Athletics (NACDA) Corridor of Fame. White will be inducted as part of the 2022 class during the 57th Annual NACDA & Affiliates Conference at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas on June 27.

The checklist of inductees incorporates for 2022 also includes Jeff Bain, Martin Methodist College Jim Fallis, College of Northern Colorado Brenda Hampton, Iowa Western Neighborhood School Invoice Hogan, Seattle University Bruce Rasmussen, Creighton University Dennis Thomas, Hampton University and Charlie Titus, University of Massachusetts Boston.

White retired as vice president and director of athletics at Duke College in August 2021 following serving in that purpose given that May 31, 2008. He now serves as a professor of organization administration at Duke’s Fuqua School of Organization, the place he teaches a common program on athletics business. White to begin with arrived at Duke soon after leading Notre Dame’s athletics method for eight a long time, in addition to beforehand keeping Advertisement positions at Arizona Point out University, Tulane University, the College of Maine and Loras College in Iowa.

White, one of the most experienced, distinguished and honored athletics administrators in faculty sports, oversaw a Duke program that provided 27 varsity sports, more than 700 pupil-athletes, far more than 300 coaches and personnel, and a actual physical training and recreation method that touched practically each and every Duke scholar. Below his management, Duke captured eight NCAA championships – women’s tennis in 2009, men’s basketball in 2010 and 2015, men’s lacrosse in 2010, 2013 and 2014, and women’s golfing in 2014 and 2019 – and 23 ACC titles. In all, 190 Duke squads superior to NCAA postseason levels of competition in the course of White’s Duke tenure. Individually, 406 scholar-athletes earned All-The us, 764 All-ACC and 331 All-Area or District honors beneath White.

Various major facility jobs had been concluded at Duke and led by White, together with key renovations to Brooks Industry at Wallace Wade Stadium, Blue Devil Tower and the Davis Relatives Kicking Area at the Brooks Apply Facility, a grand entrance and entertainment place to the entrance of iconic Cameron Indoor Stadium (Rubenstein Pavilion), the Scott Relatives Athletics Efficiency Middle that now homes many of Duke athletics’ administrative models, as very well as new toughness and conditioning and athletics medicine regions, a ticket workplace and team products retailer.

Constantly in desire as a visionary leader, White currently serves as a member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Board of Administrators. In Oct 2017, White was chosen to chair the freshly formed USOPC Collegiate Advisory Council (CAC) to guideline and strengthen Olympic sport programming at the collegiate amount. The 10-member CAC is billed with bridging the gap among significant-contributing collegiate stakeholders and the Olympic and Paralympic Motion.

In 2019-20, White served as the chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. For many a long time, he was a member of the Advocates for Athletic Fairness Board of Directors (formerly BCA) and a consultant with the football Bowl Championship Series. In addition, he beforehand was an ex-officio member of the Sugar Bowl Committee through his tenure at Tulane, was a member of the Rose Bowl Administration Committee when at Arizona Point out, and labored carefully with the Fiesta Bowl all through his stay in Tempe.

White was identified as Athletics Director of the Yr by NACDA in 2012-13 and 2005-06. He served on the NACDA Government Committee beginning in 2003, ahead of moving up the Officer ranks and getting to be NACDA President for the 2007-08 educational calendar year.

About NACDA: Now in its 57th calendar year, NACDA is the skilled and academic Affiliation for extra than 22,000 college athletics directors at far more than 2,200 establishments in the course of the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 17 specialist associations and four foundations. In addition to digital programming, NACDA hosts five major qualified advancement occasions in-person per year. The NACDA & Affiliates Conference is the most significant gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the nation. For additional information and facts, visit www.nacda.com.

#GoDuke
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January 7, 2022

Educational Development Corporation (EDUC) CEO Craig White on Q3 2022 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ:EDUC) Q3 2022 Results Conference Call January 6, 2022 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Craig White – President, CEO

Dan O’Keefe – CFO

Heather Cobb – Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

Conference Call Participants

David Wright – Henry Investment

Randy Freed – RL Capital

Operator

Thank you for joining the Educational Development Corporation’s Third Quarter Earnings Call.

Before beginning the call, we would like to remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward-looking and are protected under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to Educational Development Corporation’s recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the company’s financial condition.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Craig White, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Craig White

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to the call. With me today are Randall White, our Executive Chairman of the Board; Heather Cobb, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer; and Dan O’Keefe, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before I turn it over to Dan to go over the financial results, I’d like to recognize what a challenging year has been, probably mostly from a staffing perspective. I’m so proud of the team that we have here at EDC as the team continues to get better and better. We handled most of the staffing challenges very well, predominantly in the warehouse and really didn’t miss a beat with the challenging staffing environment out there. We didn’t have any outbreaks in the office, have really had mostly a healthy and safe environment here at EDC. So I want to recognize that first.

Now I’d like to turn the call over to Dan O’Keefe, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide a brief overview of the financials.

Dan O’Keefe

Thank you, Craig. Now for a brief overview of our third quarter financials. Our net revenues for the third quarter totalled $45.1 million, a decrease of $21.7 million or 32.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} compared to 66.8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} — compared to $66.8 million reported in the third quarter of last year.

Earnings before income taxes for the third quarter totalled $3.6 million, a decrease of $2.2 million or 37.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} compared to $5.8 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2021. Net earnings totalled $2.6 million compared to $4.3 million, a decrease of $1.7 million or 39.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} from the third quarter last year. Earnings per share totalled $0.31 compared to $0.51, down 39.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on a fully diluted basis.

That concludes the report for the third quarter financial results, and I’ll now turn the call back over to Craig.

Craig White

Thanks, Dan. A couple of items I would like to begin with today that you may have heard from me in the last couple quarterly calls and at conferences and whatnot. The COVID pandemic affected most businesses in the world, either positive or negative last year, and our company was no different. Fiscal 2021 was normal year for us. Along with the initial surge in sales from the pandemic last summer, we experienced an increased demand for non-traditional income opportunities from parents that were looking to supplement or replace pre-COVID income streams.

These factors or pandemic-related issues drove our revenues to record levels last year.

Our fiscal third quarter is typically our largest sales quarter of the year due to the seasonality of the business. This year’s third quarter sales were more in line with pre-COVID years, and that’s why we’ve presented our most current pre-COVID year comparison in today’s press release. While our third quarter revenues are down significantly from the third quarter of last year, they are up over pre-COVID levels, primarily due to our increased publishing division sales and the impact of our UBAM division’s increased consultant count. We see both these contributors continuing to drive sales in fiscal 2022 and into fiscal 2023.

So in the last couple of quarterly calls, I said we had an incredible, unusual year, and while we’re still facing unusual factors, the pandemic is not gone, we kind of had this in and out of school, in and out of work and all those things. It’s just an incredibly challenging year to compare to.

So let me next turn it over to Heather Cobb, our Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, to discuss our sales.

Heather Cobb

Thanks, Craig. During our third quarter we continued to experience an increase in our Publishing division sales and a decrease in sales from our UBAM division when compared to last year, in the throes of the pandemic.

Our Publishing division sales increased 44{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to $3.7 million in the third quarter due primarily to the return of business from customers that were temporarily closed last year due to the guidelines published by local authorities. In addition, our Publishing division has added several new customers and experienced growth with existing customers that are driving this division sales to record levels in fiscal 2022.

Our UBAM sales declined 35{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to $41.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal ’22, primarily due to the anomaly that last year was. During last year, we experienced unusual growth in our active consultant count that began in the summer of 2020 and peaked at around 60,000 in November last year. This growth in active consultants drove our revenues to record levels during fiscal ’21.

Throughout fiscal ’22, we’ve seen our active consultant count decline due to consultants returning to full-time work as the drain on parents available time navigating — associated with the continued pandemic and their children’s returning to school. The recurring obstacles of new strains of the pandemic impact our consultants’ available time to run their business.

But while our consultant counts have declined, they are certainly above the pre-pandemic levels that Craig mentioned and our consultants are still having success, generating sales, earning commissions and building their business. This was evidenced during this third quarter as our active consultants generated similar sales and commission per consultant to the third quarter of last year and the pre-pandemic third quarter of fiscal 2020.

These sales and commission results give us support that our existing consultants are experiencing a consistent level of success as they achieved without benefiting from the increased demand that occurred in the early days of the pandemic, most noticeably in that first and second quarter of fiscal ’21.

In addition, we continue to introduce new technology-based tools to help our consultants be more successful in reaching new customers and expand their recruiting and business building efforts. We believe that this will help retain the current consultants we have as well as recruit new people to the business.

Two upcoming enhancements that we expect to roll out in the next 3 months include upgrade to our platform with additional features that will improve our new consultant experience as well as our new e-commerce platform. We delayed rolling out that e-commerce platform in the third quarter of this fiscal year because our internal team as well as our top level leaders had valuable input to make that platform even better. These new technologies are expected to have a positive impact on both new consultant experience, customer experience as well as the sales and commissions earned by those new consultants during their initial period with the company.

With that, I’ll turn the call back over to Craig.

Craig White

Thanks, Heather. One other impact you see from our recently published financials is our continued high levels of working capital. We have increased inventory levels and increased working capital borrowings. These increased levels are temporary and will rebalance as we turn inventory into cash over the next few quarters. As inventory turns to cash, we will pay down our borrowings and expect to be back to a more normalized working capital within the next year.

And the good news is that the cost of carrying this inventory is less than the current replacement costs given the unusual ocean shipping challenges that are occurring.

One of the other highlights for our third quarter was our strong pretax profit levels. Our pretax profit as a percentage of net revenues totalled 8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. These pretax results on lower revenue levels than the third quarter last year reflect the strength of our business model and the management’s attention to cost containment.

We are excited to see the rebound from certain sales channels that were negatively impacted by the pandemic, including sales through school booth fairs. While this started to return this year, the new versions of the COVID-19 virus has stalled the return of this income stream, the return of booth and fair booths, which also continue to be impacted by the new COVID-19 variants. These 2 sales channels combined for about $30 million of the business that we expect will be returning to us in future quarters. We saw evidence that they were kind of starting to come back and then again with this new variant kind of shut those things back down a little bit.

So I can expand on any of those points. But at this point, we want to open it up to questions from our investors.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of David Wright from Henry Investment.

David Wright

Is your inventory higher than you’d like it to be right now?

Craig White

Absolutely. No question. I’ve had — I’m glad you asked — well, do you have a follow-up question or can I answer that one?

David Wright

Please do.

Craig White

So I was asked — I’ve been asked every phone call with investors, every investor conference, absolutely, our inventory is a little bit high. While we didn’t expect to increase sales 80{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, 50{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or maybe even 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 15{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} this year, last third quarter was a disaster as far as inventory levels. So we ramped up our inventory levels, which we purchased in January, February, March. And we are just now receiving that in the September, October, November time frame. We have not actively purchased any new backlist title inventory in 6 months.

The only inventory purchases that we’ve made in the last 6 months are new title inventory, which, as people know, is the lifeblood of a sales organization. So while there is some silver lining to that, as I mentioned in the script, we mostly — not completely, but we largely missed all the chaos that is the supply chain right now. We saw our container costs coming from China go from $5,000 to sometimes $35,000 a container. And so while we were over-inventoried, we largely missed all of that increase in cost and the delays coming from China. So yes, we’re over-inventoried.

It helped us get through a tough time, but none of it is obsolete. It will all sell. And over the next 4, 5 months, we expect that to sell down, turn it into cash, and we’ll be in great shape by next summer or third quarter.

David Wright

Right. So with your — just looking historically, your fourth and first quarters — well, your fourth quarter is typically your slowest quarter and your first quarter is only a little better. So what — where would you like inventories to have been at November 30 based on current business conditions?

Craig White

Yes. For the current sales levels, probably $45 million to $50 million would have been a more appropriate level. I think we peaked at $70 million or just slightly north of $70 million. So we have about $20 million to $25 million too much inventory. But again, we’re not actively purchasing except for new titles, and we’ll sell that down over the next couple of quarters.

David Wright

Okay. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask here ties in with the cash flow. Cash flow from operations through the first 6 months was positive $12.4 million, it’s now negative $7.4 million, which means it’s $119.8 million in the third quarter. What — do you think the fourth quarter is going to generate positive cash flow from operations?

Dan O’Keefe

Craig, do you want me to address that?

Craig White

That would be great.

Dan O’Keefe

Okay. Yes, David, that’s a good question. As you mentioned, the first — the fourth quarter is typically not our biggest quarter of the year as far as sales. But we do — we’re not going to be — we don’t expect to increase inventory. When we look at cash flow from operations, there’s really going to be 2 things — 3 things driving it.

You’re going to have your income from the business, which is going to be positive. And then you’re going to have your change in inventory and your change in accounts payable, which are going to be the other 2 major drivers of that. And we don’t see inventory increasing so that shouldn’t negatively impact our cash flow from operations. AP will be coming down a little bit, though, because we do have some payables coming due, so that would be the other element there that — we’re still in the fourth quarter and only in the first month of it. So I don’t want to make a commitment that it’s going to be cash flow positive.

But I mean those are the only 3 elements that are really going to drive it. And as you said kind of, David, when you started your question, our fourth quarter is typically not the biggest of the year. So it’s not going to really see a lot of impact on inventory dropping. We see that being bigger in the first quarter of next year in the April — March, April, May quarter because that’s when we have our second largest quarter of the year. That involves our — the Easter holiday, and we have a lot of school activities associated with that quarter of March, April and May.

So we expect to see a bigger dent in our inventory coming down in that first fiscal quarter and then also in the second fiscal quarter and third fiscal quarter, as Craig was saying. So as Craig mentioned earlier, we’re $25 million more in inventory than normally be had more predictable last 24 months, but there’s some positive elements being a little over inventoried right now. And that’s the fact that the replacement cost right now is much higher than our carrying cost of inventory. And so we feel like we’re a little heavy on inventory and our working capital position, but it will be corrected here over the next 3 quarters.

Craig White

Thanks, Dan. It seems like an appropriate time also to mention that we have very solid relationship with our bank, and their involvement and support of our business is very strong. So that’s a positive as well.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Randy Freed from RL Capital.

Randy Freed

I’m not sure who this question could be directed to, but it’s probably either Craig or Dan. I’m looking at the table in the earnings announcement near the beginning where you talked about the average number of consultants and then the net revenue and the net earnings after tax profit percentage. And I’m trying to reconcile in my own mind some of the statements you made a little bit past that in the next paragraph or 2 and a couple of statements you made on this call, where you said that you’re happy with the strong pretax profit level and you’re very happy with the cost containment.

So when I’m looking at this table here for the current quarter and I’m comparing it to the one from 2 years ago, I see after-tax profit margin of 5.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} versus year ago was 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. And I see the net earnings down just very slightly compared to the one from 2 years ago, even though the sales were up about 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So that’s the problem I’m having in my mind reconciling sort of what’s going on. I was wondering if maybe something happened this quarter, there was an unusual expense or something, and I’ll quiet, let you talk.

Dan O’Keefe

Yes. Craig, if it’s okay, I’ll take that one.

Craig White

Yes, go ahead. I have some things to add to, but go ahead.

Dan O’Keefe

Okay. So a good question, Randy. Third quarter typically our biggest quarter of the year and highest profit percentage of the year because you’re spreading your fixed costs, obviously, over a bigger revenue base. And so the difference between pre-COVID if you look at those profitability percentages now is really dealing with a little — a different freight cost on our outbound freight is the biggest impact. We have a contract with our small parcel carrier.

And COVID occurred last year, they started implementing 2 different layers of surcharges. One was a peak season surcharge and the other one was a — just an unusual holiday season on top of the peak season surcharge. And so we’ve kind of had to bear some of those costs, and they’ve hit our bottom line here in the third quarter of this year that weren’t in place pre-COVID. And so that’s what you see. The other thing I would like to point out to you is that if you can look at the year-to-date numbers, you can see our year-to-date numbers for this current year after tax were 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} in the table there, and then the pre-COVID numbers are 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

So while we’ve had some holiday season peak surcharges this year and even last year, overall, the peak season surcharges haven’t hurt us. And we’ve implemented some rate increases this year that have actually helped us generate the after-tax margin of 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} year-to-date.

Craig White

Yes. Let me add to that, we kind of internally use pretax profit as a KPI. And so we had a very challenging September actually. That seemed to be the most chaotic as it related to the pandemic as kids were kind of going back to school. We seemed to be coming out of the pandemic with people going back to work.

So there was a little bit of chaos. September was not good. And then we followed that up with October with our best pretax profit that I remember in years. And then November, we did a lot of promotions with some free shippings and things, but it was still a very solid pretax profit.

So we’re — like we’re saying, the sales are way over third quarter — or not way over, they’re over third quarter 2020 and considerably lower than last third quarter, but we’re maintaining good pretax profit level.

Randy Freed

Okay. I did notice what you said, too, about the 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} versus the 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, but that sort of brings me to the question, if you look at the fiscal year-to-date for the sales from 2 years ago versus this year for the first 9 months, it looks like it was up about 28{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} from 2 years ago for the first 3 quarters added up. But this year, it was up about 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 11{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So I did notice that, too. So it looks like — I mean the sales are higher, but they’re not as high in the whole fiscal year as a percentage.

Craig White

Well, that’s not exactly accurate. 1.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on the 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} is more like 23{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 24{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So it’s not 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 11{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, it’s about 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

Randy Freed

No, I was talking about the sales — I’m sorry, the net revenue is what I was talking about, I’m still in that same table.

Craig White

Okay. I thought you were talking about the after-tax profit, I’m sorry.

Randy Freed

No. That’s fine. Let me just ask one last question. So you’re talking about strong pretax profit levels, et cetera, and I know you really can’t project this at all. But for the next fiscal year, which I guess talking about March 1 of this year or 12 months after that. I mean you’ve talked a lot about efficiencies and things like that. Do you have any idea or do you think the pretax or the after-tax profit levels are going to be sort of consistent? If you look at this whole table here, you can see no matter what we’re talking about, they’re pretty consistent, right, between 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} at the worst and 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} at the best, just looking at this table, which I know there’s different columns there. But do you sort of project that as being roughly the same? Or do you think that potentially could increase in the future?

Craig White

Yes. I think you probably recognize kind of our model, and we have 25{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to our business. So we’re hitting 8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and maybe a little bit north of 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on a pretax profit, but the changes of getting much higher than that are challenging. I think it’s going to be very consistent. What I will add is that we could have been more efficient this third quarter this year because the staffing challenges were crazy.

We hired roughly 300 people, and about 30 of them starched. So that time and effort to train people for them to leave at lunch and never come back or not come back the second day or all of those factors, we could have been a little more efficient this year, even this third quarter. So — but still, I expect them to remain consistent. Yes.

Randy Freed

Okay. That’s what I was hoping you’d get into a little bit of what you just said that there was a lot of challenges this quarter. And like you said, with staffing and people not coming back. And then what Dan already talked about with the freight costs and the peak season surcharges. So thank you for that information.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Presenters, you may continue.

Craig White

Okay. Great. So while we’re not ecstatic about what has been so far this year, we are encouraged and happy. We’re considering ourselves still in the growth mode, if we’re comparing to the last normal year. We’ve had 2 very unusual non-normal years that were — our growth pattern of about 30{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 40{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} over the same time period in calendar 2019. So

we have nothing but good forecasts. We’re looking forward to this next year. While we’re not ecstatic, we’re still pleased with what we’ve accomplished. So we appreciate you all joining us, and talk to you next time. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

December 27, 2021

Page, Arizona, Ex Teacher Brant Williams Hawks White Nationalist Homeschooling Online

The School of the West, a recently launched online “educational resource for homeschooling parents,” offers a smattering of materials—some free, some only for paying members—to help teach kids standard subjects like math, science, and language arts. But its key selling point is a unique and deeply disturbing field of study that the site has dubbed “White Wellbeing.”

A write-up on the contents of an upcoming three-month live-streamed white wellbeing course, advertised for students ages four and older, explains that it will help children “understand the gift of being born a member of Westernkind and the qualities that separate us from the other races.” In case it wasn’t clear, the write-up later clarifies that “the White race is known as Westernkind.” It also promises to teach them how to spot and respond to the “anti-white propaganda” that supposedly suffuses modern life, why white people are the only true citizens of Western nations, and how “feminism destroys the family unit,” the supposed backbone of all Westernkind, “thus weakening our societies.”

This blatant white-nationalist ideology is infused into some of the site’s lessons on conventional subjects, as well. Its history materials, for example, falsely teach that the notion European colonization led to the spread of new diseases that decimated indigenous populations is not established historical fact, but an anti-white myth. The School also links to the Institute for Historical Review, as a “reliable online source for the study of history.” The IHR notoriously publishes materials that push for Holocaust denial and antisemitic readings of history, using the language and formatting of conventional academia, but none of its rigor. And the School’s life sciences materials are just a series of seven videos and attendant worksheets on the supposed science of human racial differences, which deliver a series of thoroughly debunked pseudoscientific arguments as if they were hard facts.

“When you develop trust with your students, they’ll believe pretty much everything you say.”

— Brant Williams

As if to underscore its focus on white-nationalist indoctrination, one video on the site even tells children that, in the face of a supposedly virulently anti-white culture, “it’s important to do your schoolwork, but it’s even more important to feel good about yourself and your own people.”

Oh, and an ad for the site floating around the dark corners of the internet opens with pictures of all-white communities and schools in the mid-20th century, then juxtaposes them with images of diverse classrooms and clips of Black kids hitting white kids, among other racial fear-baiting imagery. Towards the end of the ad, text pops up that reads “Enough. Reclaim Your Destiny.” It then shows a copy of White Fragility—the pop explainer on systemic and often unconscious racism—burning over coals.

It is easy to dismiss the site as a gross but ultimately marginal aberration. After all, it appears to be one guy’s pet project: On the site, he goes by Brant Danger, but the Anti-Defamation League extremism researcher Mark Pitcavage and The Daily Beast have identified him as Brant Williams, who until this spring was a teacher in the majority-Native American Page Unified School District, which serves Page, Arizona, and surrounding areas. A representative for the PUSD told The Daily Beast that Williams left of his own volition at the end of the last school year. The representative said they weren’t aware of his work on the School of the West.

Williams did not respond to repeated efforts to reach him for comment on this story.

But experts on homeschooling and white nationalism alike say that his School actually reflects longstanding efforts to indoctrinate children into extremism. It’s just far more blatant, visible, and organized than many past extremist homeschooling endeavors. Amy Cooter, a sociologist who studies white nationalism, and grew up in a private Southern Baptist church school with connections to far-right homeschooling groups, argued the School’s blatant racism is not a naïve mistake, but a logical step in larger efforts to bring white-nationalist ideas into mainstream consciousness.

“Our political environment is more receptive to this sort of messaging at the moment,” she told The Daily Beast.

Notably, in recent months, fans of the School of the West have started to drop links to it in a few small social media communities focused on anti-critical race theory activism, in the hope that people who’ve bought into that twisted, partially manufactured, and racially charged furor might be amenable to the school and its ideology. This tactic probably won’t be as successful as fans of the School might hope, the experts The Daily Beast spoke to argued. But it may be more successful than many mainstream observers—and anti-CRT activists, most of whom vigorously dispute charges that their movement is tinged with racism—would be comfortable with.

“I’m sure that some people who’ve thought of themselves as not racist will buy into this,” Cooter told The Daily Beast.

Motives for homeschooling children in the United States have always been diverse. But for decades, a particularly vocal and visible subset of homeschoolers have advocated pulling kids out of school to escape the supposedly secular, liberal bias of public education. There’s also a longstanding connection between homeschooling and anti-integration white flight. Overt white nationalists in particular started to go all-in on homeschooling in the early 2000s, Pitcavage noted.

“White nationalists are interested in creating their own parallel society,” explained Sophie Bjork-James, an anthropologist who studies white-nationalist communities. “Educating children in white-supremacist values is part of this plan… White nationalists understand that exposing their children to multicultural curricula can lead to a rejection of their beliefs.”

However, Jameson Brewer, an education researcher who studies homeschooling tactics and trends, said that public resources and curricula created for these communities “tend to be more shrouded, to use dog whistles.” Their textbooks might, for example, frame slavery as a necessary evil, or present a both-sides narrative about Nazi policies. Cooter added that these sorts of materials also tend to show only images of white families, and talk exclusively about white people’s histories. Even curricula that express openly far-right ideologies often stop short of talking about things like core racial differences, instead just waxing poetic about loaded concepts like Western Christianity, nationalism, and tradition, while castigating social justice and wokeness as anathema to good, orderly society.

Richard Fording, a University of Alabama professor who tracks white-nationalist trends, said that there are more explicit “white-nationalist homeschooling groups out there, but they are normally kind of under the radar, not open to just anyone.” White nationalists also swap ideas about what to teach kids on their own niche platforms so as to help each other develop private, idiosyncratic curricula. In the mid-2000s, a Klan group did create what it called the first homeschooling resource for white-nationalist parents, but said it didn’t “intend to provide all the information, all the tools, books, etc.,” and instead just wanted to point folks “in the right direction.” Similarly, a white-nationalist women’s group on the West Coast created something that it called a curriculum, but that actually just guided those who purchased it through how to build their own.

Experts stressed that these efforts have always been small scale, ad hoc, and/or fleeting. Brant Williams clearly felt there was a major gap in educational offerings for open white-nationalists—and took it upon himself to fill it.

Williams has told a consistent story on a number of far-right livestreams and podcasts about how he came to develop the School of the West.

In these interviews, as on the School of the West site, he consistently goes by the name Brant Danger, and is often cagey about his location or exact job title. But after Pitcavage of the ADL learned about the School of the West this summer, he found an old social media handle and email address that used that pseudonym, and were both connected to the name Brant Williams. Both used the same profile photo, which resembles “Brant Danger,” who makes no effort to hide or disguise his face during livestreamed interviews or in School of the West videos. The social media account also included a white pride meme and some materials related to teaching.

Williams appears to have slipped up in a few of his Brant Danger interviews—if he ever was truly attempting to conceal his identity—mentioning that he taught in Arizona, near a reservation. Pitcavage noticed that and, after some searching, found the name Brant Williams on the faculty page of a Page Unified School District school. He also found a YouTube video in which a man who looks exactly like “Brant Danger” identifies himself as Brant Williams, a Page-area earth and space sciences teacher, and castigates the local school district.

The Daily Beast checked public records and found a Brant Williams connected to an address in Page. The Arizona Department of Education’s teacher certification database also lists a Brant Williams with an active certificate and a specialization in earth sciences. The Daily Beast could not find any record of any other person named Brant Williams with a certification to teach in Arizona living within a 100-mile radius of Page. A Page Unified School District representative also told The Daily Beast that Brant Williams taught there until the end of the last school year, which lines up with details “Brant Danger” has given about his career status in interviews. The representative reviewed the YouTube video of Brant Williams deriding the district as well, and confirmed the man who appeared in it seemed to be the same Brant Williams who taught in their schools.

The Daily Beast also identified Arizona business incorporation papers that list a “Brant Williams” as the owner and operator of School of the West LLC, and connect him to an address in Page. The School of the West’s website used an anonymization service to hide its owner from registration databases. But within a trove of data published by hackers who broke into the far right-friendly web hosting service Epik, The Daily Beast found information showing that the site was registered by a “Brant Williams,” and linked to a post office box in Page.

In online interviews, Williams (speaking as “Brant Danger”) has claimed that he had a slow “racial awakening” over the course of his childhood, as he observed the differences between majority-white and majority-minority communities and schools. But in 2016, he’s said, he started researching Muslim immigration to Europe online and went “further and further down the rabbit holes.”

Eventually, he found Jason Köhne, an author and streamer instrumental in the development of a seemingly genteel new flavor of white nationalism focused on fostering so-called white wellbeing in the face of a supposed deluge of anti-white policies and propaganda. Köhne notably advocates for the open expression of white cultural pride as a counter to alleged systemic anti-white degradation and oppression. Williams became a mod in the chats that accompany some of Köhne’s livestreams, and clearly states in School of the West materials that many of his lessons are heavily informed by Köhne’s works, or even in some cases direct attempts to adapt their arguments for younger audiences. (Köhne did not respond to a request for comment on this story.)

Williams has also claimed that teaching in a majority-minority community deepened his belief in the fundamental differences between different races—or, put another way, reinforced his racism. Notably, he’s described his Native students as inherently less focused and punctual than his white students, and argued that the reservation communities near Page are covered in trash and full of mangy dogs because Native Americans don’t care about cleanliness or animals—baldly bogus and bigoted claims. He’s insisted that he loves all of his students, and bears no ill will towards other races—that they can and should live according to their supposed inborn and unique racial impulses. But he’s argued that diversity, and the influence of other cultures, is detrimental to white communities.

He’s also said that he’s long chafed at depictions of multiculturalism in school materials, and at efforts to promote equality or equity within classrooms and wider school systems. At times, he’s said, when he felt that school textbooks were teaching lies, he’d close the door to his classroom and teach what he believes to be the truth instead. In one interview, he recounted an instance in which his students asked if something was racist and he told them not to use that word because “that R word for white people is like the N word for black people… it’s just meant to hurt white people. Don’t use that word.”

“Here’s the thing with kids,” he recently told another interviewer. “If I told them that aliens came down and made these people in Hollywood and now everyone in Hollywood is aliens, they’d go, ‘Yeah, OK, alright.’ When you develop trust with your students, they’ll believe pretty much everything you say.”

This is bad when teachers promote anti-white propaganda, he argued. But it’s an asset when someone like him comes along to tell them the so-called truth about race and society.

As his urge to spread his blatantly racist gospel to young, impressionable minds—and his frustrations with the supposed anti-white bent of his district—festered, Williams apparently started talking in niche social-media communities about the importance of creating venues “for white kids who want to be taught by whites.” While he found people online who agreed with him, he couldn’t find any resources that he felt fit the bill.

Then in early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced his school to go remote. This, he’s claimed, gave him the time and space he needed to start making his dream a reality—building the foundations of the School of the West while still teaching in a public school. Registration data show that Williams began to create the School’s site in April 2020. (It is not entirely clear why he left the school at which he taught at the end of the last school year.) He’s claimed that Köhne helped him to connect with other so-called white wellbeing advocates across the web who helped him develop lessons; around a dozen white-nationalist figures, some obscure and some relatively well-known in this niche digital scene, appear to have contributed to the project. Williams has claimed that he’s still working with collaborators to build out the curriculum, which he boasts will grow far more comprehensive in the months and years to come.

Even before he officially incorporated and launched the School this past summer, far-right streams and social-media accounts started to promote and celebrate his venture. But awareness of the project was seemingly confined to niche white-nationalist spheres.

Then the right-wing panic over critical race theory exploded into public view.

The anti-CRT movement is largely alarmist and disingenuous. It thrives on misrepresentations of what CRT actually teaches, and of what is actually taught in most schools, in a way that demonizes discussions about systemic racism or unconscious bias in educational settings, or in some cases even discussions of America’s history of racism overall. However, even critics of the critical race theory backlash acknowledge that there’s a big gap between that freak-out and the full-throated white nationalism that the School of the West promotes. Most anti-CRT figures promote a willful colorblindness—often grounded in decontextualized and sanitized Martin Luther King Jr. quotes—that white nationalists find abhorrent.

But as Wendy K.Z. Anderson, an expert on critical race theory at the University of Minnesota, noted in an interview, some anti-CRT activists believe the framework is mainly “a mechanism to convey guilt onto white children.” Analyses have also suggested that the most fervent CRT debates track to areas experiencing notable demographic change. So there’s a current within the anti-CRT sphere that is anxious about and sensitive to perceived slights against whiteness, above all else.

White nationalists recognize that current. That’s why, Bjork-James argued, they ultimately “see in the current focus on critical race theory an opportunity to recruit new members.”

Or, as a far-right streamer put it in a conversation with Williams a few months back: “The anti-CRT movement, I think, is the best place to … present our movement.”

““I wouldn’t go so far as to use the School of the West to argue that homeschooling shouldn’t exist. But I think it shows what can happen when homeschooling is so unregulated: It opens itself up to these extremist ideologies.””

— Jameson Brewer

The streamer later added, “We need to co-opt that movement.”

In recent months, far-right figures like Candace Owens, Ron Paul, and Steve Bannon have urged families to consider homeschooling their kids to save their minds from supposed liberal racial propaganda. The number of homeschooled students in America has more than doubled since the spring of 2020, but it’s not clear how much of that tracks to anti-CRT sentiment. (Notably, the fastest-growing homeschooling demographics are actually people of color, many of whom opt for homeschooling to avoid systemic racism.) But the idea that families might heed these calls has seemingly captivated some extremist homeschooling curriculum developers, who’ve started to use explicit anti-CRT messaging to advertise their materials to anxious parents.

Hence the logic and appeal of seeding School of the West links in anti-CRT social-media circles. As Fording put it, the School and its advocates are “banking on the fact that there are people who are now not embarrassed to embrace their inner white nationalism due to the fact that their concerns [about so-called anti-white sentiments and policies] have been normalized.”

On a stream a few weeks back, when asked for his thoughts on rising anti-CRT furor, Williams said, “You have a population of parents that have finally woken up, because the anti-white material is being propagandized and advertised so loudly now that they can’t ignore it… So overall, I think this is a good thing.” He suggested that this popular outrage will bring some around to his line of thought, and to homeschooling.

The Daily Beast reached out to several prominent anti-CRT groups for comment on the School of the West and its and other white-nationalist groups’ apparent interest in co-opting them. Only one, Parents Against Critical Theory, replied. Their founder, Scott Mineo said he and his compatriots “do not believe in a race-based or -centric education, no matter the race,” and that he had never heard of the School of the West.

“I’m not here to judge how any family conducts the homeschooling of their kids,” he added. “It’s not my business, no matter the ethnicity.”

However, a few anti-CRT advocates appear to have noticed School of the West links showing up in their communities. One recent movement newsletter specifically called the School out, and took pains to instruct fellow activists not to be confused or seduced by white-nationalist rhetoric.

Khalilah Harris, an expert on education policy and critical race theory at the left-wing Center for American Progress, doubts that too many anti-CRT types will buy into the appeal of the School. Open white nationalism is still beyond the pale, even for many individuals with clear racial anxieties.

But most of the experts The Daily Beast spoke to believe that, even if the School doesn’t draw in a huge number of anti-CRT activists, it could still pull a non-negligible section of the movement into the white-nationalist orbit by stoking and affirming their worst race-based fears.

The open bigotry of the School of the West—and its potential for radicalizing adults and children alike—mean that “this project might be viewed by many as a threat to all of American society,” as Jim Dwyer, a law professor and author of a history of homeschooling in the U.S., put it.

But there are currently no clear legal injunctions against something like the School of the West. Although homeschooling laws vary from state to state, in most of the country, parents can basically teach their kids whatever they want at home. Even in states that require education in certain subjects and ask parents to submit curricula, it’s easy to tick all the right boxes on a form, then just teach whatever you like in practice. There’s no real follow-up. And as long as a parent is covering all the materials required, the state is not in a position to critique the ideological spin they may put on it.

“We have no meaningful checks on whether parents are teaching their children stuff we might think of as bad—in fundamental conflict with the values of our society, like white nationalism,” Elizabeth Bartholet, a legal scholar, child-welfare law expert, and critic of homeschooling norms and regulations, told The Daily Beast.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to use the School of the West to argue that homeschooling shouldn’t exist,” added Brewer, the homeschooling scholar. “But I think it shows what can happen when homeschooling is so unregulated: It opens itself up to these extremist ideologies.”

However, strong political trends and practical constraints pose obstacles to the implementation of any reforms that might meaningfully curb the use and abuse of homeschooling as a hate-indoctrination pipeline. “Even people who feel strongly that there should be more regulation and have recommended various changes will say, ‘But it’s hopeless,’” Bartholet said.

In other words, the School of the West likely won’t be going away anytime soon.

December 23, 2021

White Bear teacher picks name for new elementary school | News

When Becky Butters-Levahn passed the design web page of the new Hugo elementary university on a casual bike trip, she experienced no way of realizing she’d be the one particular to name it numerous months afterwards.

Butters-Levahn’s suggestion of North Star Elementary was chosen from a lot more than 80 identify ideas submitted by members of the community. The title was formally accredited at the Dec. 13 conference of the White Bear Lake Area Faculty Board.

Butters-Levahn was joined by her father, Invoice Butters, on the fateful biking outing that took them past the web page of the new university on Freeway 61, just north of the Hugo Write-up Business.

“We mentioned how the new faculty will be the northernmost component of our college district, and that the North Star has been a guiding light-weight to numerous generations and cultures,” Butters-Levahn stated.

The pair also chatted about the Minnesota North Stars hockey team, on which Bill Butters played in the ‘70s.

“We considered it would be a nostalgic nod to the state of hockey,” Butters-Levahn reported.

Butters-Levahn and her relatives have a very long record in the district: she attended Hugo Elementary School as a child and graduated from White Bear Lake Large University in 1998.

“This is particularly an honor for me simply because I attended Hugo when it was the only school in city,” she claimed. She recalled that some of her greatest reminiscences and academics ended up there, naming Mrs. Birch, Mrs. Bedard and Mrs. Oswald.

Her father also graduated from White Bear Lake, and her mom is a retired actual physical education and learning teacher in the district. Her brother and his wife are equally teachers at Matoska.

In 2005, Butters-Levahn began functioning as a special instruction teacher in White Bear Lake. She currently will work at Lincoln Elementary.

“We have a whole lot of historical past and history below, so it is genuinely thrilling to be a part of the new local community as well as the outdated,” Butters-Levahn stated.

Butters-Levahn heard the information from latest Lincoln Elementary Principal Dan Schmidt, who will serve as the principal at North Star when it opens in fall of 2022.

“North Star is a beneficial name that mirrors the school’s area in the district,” Schmidt claimed at the Dec. 13 assembly. “It is an orienting star in the Northern Hemisphere that is inspiring and uplifting.” Schmidt also mentioned the historical significance of the star, providing illustrations of the directional advice utilized by slaves trying to get liberty and the importance of the star to some Indigenous communities.

The North Star’s relation to character was mentioned as an additional strong tie to the school’s identify, as organic elements have been worked into the layout of the new creating to just take gain of the natural placing of the faculty. Schmidt also observed that the North Star is component of the Minimal Dipper, also identified as Minor Bear.

Design carries on on North Star Elementary, situated on Freeway 61, north of the Hugo Article Office environment. The task is scheduled to be concluded in advance of the 2022-23 faculty yr and will serve students in grades kindergarten by way of fifth grade in the northern portion of the district. The community will be invited in to tour the new creating later this summer time when the elementary university is concluded.

“I am beyond grateful that my name suggestion was picked out and will treasure this memory with my Father,” Butters-Levahn explained.

Updates on the North Star Elementary task, together with other design jobs through the district, can be identified at the district internet site, immediately at isd624.org/BuildingOurFuture.