Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Popular Information reports:
Activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty — a group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights, pushing for the removal of library books, and fighting racially inclusive curriculum — are starting their own public charter school. The new school, to be known as the Ashley River Classical Academy, will be fully taxpayer-funded, but is structured in a way that effectively avoids any state oversight or accountability.
The school will use the 1776 Curriculum, created by Hillsdale College, a small right-wing institution with close ties to former president Donald Trump. Adam Laats, a historian at New York’s Binghamton University, described the 1776 Curriculum as “the red [MAGA] hat in textbook form.”
Three of the seven board members for Ashley River Classical Academy are leaders in the Charleston Moms for Liberty chapter, including chair Tara Wood, treasurer Janine Nagrodsky, and education committee head Nicole McCarthy. In 2022, Wood wrote that a “significant amount of the Charleston County School District’s budget is spent on third-party consultants who are trying to sexualize our children through inappropriate books and lessons.”
Read the full article. There’s much more. No paywall.
1. The leaders of a @Moms4Liberty chapter in South Carolina are starting their OWN PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL, fully funded by taxpayers
The curriculum is “the red [MAGA] hat in textbook form.”
The school is structured to avoid any oversight and accountability from the state
🧵
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
2. Three of 7 board members for Ashley River Classical Academy are leaders in the Charleston @Moms4Liberty chapter, including Tara Wood, the chapter chair
Wood claims that the public school budget is “spent on 3rd-party consultants who are trying to sexualize our children”
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
3. In general, charter schools in South Carolina are approved and overseen by the state’s Public Charter District or the local school board where the school is based.
But not the new @Moms4Liberty school
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
4. A loophole in state law also allows a college to sponsor a charter school. Erskine College, a tiny Christian school w/massive financial problems, registered as a sponsor
When the Public Charter District tried to close failing charters, Erskine stepped in as the new sponsor
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
5. Erskine College has been running a deficit for years and sponsoring charters is a new source of revenue. It currently sponsors 28 charters with a much more, including the @Moms4Liberty school, in the pipelinehttps://t.co/Liz08TUDHT
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
6. Erskine College has taken a fundamentalist turn in recent years. Today, “anyone applying to work at Erskine” must “abortion is a sin, that ‘in all instances, one should seek to preserve the life of the unborn child,’ [and] that homosexuality is a sin.”
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
7. Erskine is at risk of losing its own accreditation due to a failure to “manage its financial resources in a responsible manner.”
Erskine is entitled to 2% of taxpayer funding its sponsored charter schools receive
It’s an important new source of revenue
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
8. The only entity that will decide whether the @Moms4Liberty school is meeting the needs of students is Erskine College. The state has no oversight over the school whatsoever.https://t.co/Liz08TUDHT
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
9. The @Moms4Liberty school hired Alexandria Spry to serve as its first head
Last year, Spry previously worked for a similar “classical” academy with a right-wing curriculum in Florida, Jacksonville Classical Academy East (JCAE)
JCAE received an “F” rating from the Florida DOE
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024
10. The @Moms4Liberty school, Ashley River Classical Academy, will use the 1776 Curriculum created by Hillsdale College, a right-wing Christian institution with close ties to Trump
It promotes a biased and often inaccurate version of American historyhttps://t.co/Liz08TVbxr
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 16, 2024