School Districts Spending Millions on ‘White Privilege’ Training

SAN FRANCISCO – There’s no question that the Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based education consulting company, is a successful for-profit enterprise.

It’s a standing tribute to American capitalism, and the success that entrepreneurs of all races can experience in a free market economy.

Of course PEG’s overt mission is to improve educational opportunities for black and other minority children.

The company sells the notion that the American education system is unfairly based on traditional white cultural norms (white privilege in schools) to the benefit of white students and the detriment of minorities.

The product it sells to schools involves training for teachers and other staff members, so they can better understand and relate to the needs of minority students.

One might assume that PEG’s founder and president, Glenn Singleton, who is a black man, wants better instruction for minority kids so they can follow his path and become successful participants in the American economy.

Yet PEG has working relationships with a number of radical progressive academics who condemn American capitalism and society in general.

These academics seem intent on convincing minority students that the education system, and American society in general, are biased against them. Instead of motivating students for success, they seem like they want to convince them they are victims of an unjust society that requires radical transformation.

Eighteen school districts reported paying PEG a combined $1.56 million in that one year. Seven of those districts paid the company six figures.

PEG has used speakers at its national conferences who condemn the ideals of private property and profit, and dismiss the notion that minority students (like Singleton once was) can work hard and succeed on their own.

One keynote speaker at the PEG’s Summit for Courageous Conversations back in 2009 was Antonia Darder, a professor who has worked at several American universities. She once gave a speech entitled “The Neoliberal Restructuring of Cities, Education Policy, and Possibilities for Social Transformation Through a Marxist Lens.”

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