Who wouldn’t want to spend a few days at a five-star resort and spa in California wine country leisurely enjoying wine-tasting parties at Napa Valley wineries and sampling five-star cuisine? Better yet, who wouldn’t want to take that trip without needing to pay for it or take time off work?
No, it wasn’t a timeshare presentation. It was a glitzy conference held earlier this month and focused on implementing the racially discriminatory tenets of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in schools. Public records obtained by the Goldwater Institute reveal that one Phoenix public school district sent officials to attend, all on the taxpayers’ dime—to the tune of $4,000 per person.
Indeed, members of the Creighton Elementary School District Governing Board and Administrative Team journeyed to Napa, Calif., for the three-day 4th Annual California Association of Black School Educators Institute, held between July 14 and July 17 at The Meritage Resort and Spa, where the current room rate—in the off season— is around $400 per night. Conference offerings, meanwhile, included a five-hour “Chairman’s Soiree” at a local winery, where participants were bussed in to enjoy wine and haute cuisine.
The “Black to Basics”-themed conference promised to “foster collaborative action among California education professionals committed to advancing equity for Black students.”
As for the content of the conference? The detailed agenda listing the sessions for this year’s conference was not published online. However, last year’s conference—also in Napa—included sessions such as “A Whole Village Approach to Equity,” “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning,” and “Equity in Mental Health.”
But plenty of unanswered questions about this year’s event remain. In a three-day conference, why was only 9.25 hours committed to substantive conference content (the sessions where one would qualify for continuing education credit), compared to 22.25 hours spent on “networking” events like the winery soiree. Why are officials from a Phoenix school district attending a California state education DEI conference with a clear California focus? And why is the district—in which 80% of students fail to meet proficiency levels in reading (across all races combined)—narrowly focusing resources toward a single racial demographic to the exclusion of others, while apparently deprioritizing the 80% of students who are Hispanic or Asian, for instance?
The district should also produce a detailed conference agenda, a list of all persons attending the conference (the entire governing board and the superintendent’s cabinet were approved to attend), and receipts for all relevant travel expenses, in addition to divulging whether any attendees brought guests to enjoy this taxpayer-funded vacation.
And what about the host organization, the California Association of Black School Educators, or CABSE? According to its website, the group is a “non-partisan organization consisting of elected and appointed school officials, administrators and instructors from across California who are committed to advancing equity for Black students.” CABSE advocates for public schools to “challenge inherent bias” against black students and supports the “incorporation of Social Emotional Learning and multi-tiered systems of support to ensure equity”—“equity” being the impossible standard of equality of outcomes, regardless of student effort or ability. The group also:
- Opposes the use of ACT/SAT exams as a factor in college admissions;
- Supports the elimination of willful defiance suspensions and expulsions. (I.e., consequences for one’s actions);
- Calls for “Meaningful and authentic incorporation of Ethnic Studies Curriculum” on par with other coursework such as math, science, or civics;
- Advocates for “Cultural Humility Training” and a “Culturally Diverse and Competent Workforce” to match student identities (i.e., racial quotas).
As they love to say in wine country, “in vino veritas!”—in wine, there is truth. Let’s hope taxpayers can get some truth out of the school district about its unconscionable spending.
After all, taxpayers should not have to pay for school board members to be radicalized at out-of-state conferences. It’s happening anyway—but Goldwater is committed to exposing it.
