U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has a very good reason to sic the FBI on angry parents who oppose school boards that peddle Critical Race Theory: His son-in-law’s company makes millions helping shove CRT down the throats of kids in 23,000 schools.
Garland’s daughter, Rebecca, is married to Xan Tanner, who co-founded an outfit called Panorama, which provides psychological surveys that help sell the toxic curricula. Squelching opposition to CRT with threats of FBI surveillance and federal prosecution, as Garland did on October 4, would ease the way for school boards to adopt CRT and other subversive material. And, of course, muzzling parents will keep the money rolling in to Panorama.
No wonder three GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee say Garland has a major conflict of interest.
It’s bad enough that Joe Biden and his son are up to their eyeballs in corruption and self-dealing. Now, we learn, the rot in the regime includes the top law-enforcement official in the country.
Millions for Garland’s Daughter
Garland landed in hot water when news surfaced that 1,500 school districts pay his son’s company millions for psychological surveys. The surveys soften up kids for leftist propaganda.
“Panorama Education sells surveys to school districts across the country that focus on the local ‘social and emotion climate,’” Forbes magazine reported this week:
These surveys are then used as justification for new curriculum that some parents call critical race theory and find objectionable.
Tanner’s company has a large footprint with contracts in 50+ of the nation’s 100 largest school districts. The company describes its business as supporting “13 million students in 23,000 schools and 1,500 districts across 50 states.”
Facebook chieftain Mark Zuckerberg is involved in the propaganda project, too, Forbes reported. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are invested in Panorama through something called the Emerson Collective and its $16 million investment.
Just before Garland issued the now-famous memorandum, which orders the FBI to crack down on dissident parents, “Panorama closed on a $60 million private financing raise with venture capital firm General Atlantic,” Forbes reported.
One wonders how Panorama keeps up with the bank deposits:
In the OpenTheBooks government expenditure library posted online, there are at least $27 million in payments to Panorama from states, school districts, and local boards of education across 21 states between the years 2017 and 2020.
Contracts with the New York City Department of Education; Dallas Independent School District; Seattle Public Schools; District of Columbia; and the San Francisco Unified School District are showcased in company materials, and are known.
However, records posted by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com reveal that school districts in Texas, Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Rhode Island, Oregon, Iowa, Utah, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Georgia, New Mexico, Illinois, Wyoming, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maine, Virginia, and Ohio all hired Panorama Education for training and/or surveys.
Schools in Arlington County, Virginia, pay Panorama consultants $250 an hour to help brainwash students.
“The Arlington social and emotional climate survey is posted online,” Forbes noted:
Questions included: “how clearly do you see your culture and history reflected in your school?”; and “how often do you feel that you are treated poorly by other students because of your race, ethnicity, gender, family’s income, religion, disability, or sexual orientation?”
Parents are understandably worried that Panorama is helping push CRT and sexual perversion.
Critics say the terms “social-emotional learning” and “culturally responsive training” introduce controversial ideas about race and identity that are associated with critical race theory.
Shortly after George Floyd was killed in police custody, Panorama Education put out a statement committing to combat systemic racism in the educational system.
“We commit to dismantling systemic racism, we commit to embodying and spreading anti-racist practices, and we commit to building systems of opportunity and possibility for students of color,” Panorama Education CEO and co-founder Aaron Feuer wrote. “Important areas of impact include student voice, social-emotional learning and mental health, anti-racism practices, diversity and inclusion practices, equitable [Multi-Tiered System of Supports] and behavior practices, conversations around race and identity, recruiting and supporting teachers of color, and systemic approaches to equity.”
Parents Defending Education revealed Panorama’s $2.4 million contract with Fairfax County Public schools for a “social and emotional learning screener.” The contract is a “data-mining” project, the group says, that permits Panorama to see “confidential student records … without transparency to parents.”
Disturbingly, the contract says Panorama employees are considered school board officials.
Letter From Senate
No wonder Garland turned the FBI loose on parents he called a threat for disrupting school-board meetings: His daughter’s family stands to lose millions if school boards cut off contracts with her husband’s subversive outfit.
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) sent Garland eight questions about Panorama and Xan Tanner. They cited the Justice Departments’ conflict-of-interest policy, which prohibits employees from participating “in a particular matter having specific parties that could affect the financial interests of members of her household.”
The senators want answers about the obvious conflict of interest by October 21. They were among 30 who voted against Garland’s confirmation.
Senator Mitch McConnell, who blocked Garland’s rise to SCOTUS, voted for him.
H/T: New York Post
