Americans understand that a portion of our tax dollars are used to sustain the K-12 public school system so that our country’s children are guaranteed an education. However, what many Americans may not know is exactly what kind of education children are receiving.
It was recently reported that a proposed LGBTQ-themed charter school in Brooklyn, New York, would put kids between grades 5 and 9 in a “genderful environment” that prioritizes the “needs and voices of trans, nonbinary, queer, and ally students, teachers, and parents,” as described by the school’s “proud” non-binary founder. The school, Miss Major Middle (named after a black transgender activist), would accommodate students who “want to explore, learn about, challenge, change, or move inside and outside the bounds of masculinity and femininity.”
While it might be tempting to dismiss such a creation as merely the latest example of New York City’s liberal excess, Parents Defending Education (PDE) investigated several other public charter schools in red and purple states that were created specifically for students who identify as LGBTQ or “allies.” We found that these schools teach gender ideology as a matter of fact and receive significant sums of taxpayer dollars to operate — regardless of the values of the taxpayers.
Public charter schools are tuition-free public schools that often operate independently from school districts but still receive state and federal funding. LGBTQ-themed charter schools are a relatively new concept, with some already existing in blue states such as California and New York, as noted above. But they also exist in more conservative-leaning states.
One notable example is the Magic City Acceptance Academy (MCAA) in Homewood, Alabama.
The MCAA describes itself as a “brave learning environment and LGBTQ affirming culture for all.” In other words, if a child wants to transition to another gender, the school will “affirm” that transition. The school is known for prominently displaying rainbows in support of LGBTQ issues and brags that six of the school’s 12 board members “identify as LGBTQ.”
PDE found that the school’s budget for the 2023 fiscal year included nearly $2.9 million in state funding and almost $660,000 in federal funding. This is taxpayer money that could be used for other schools in Alabama that prioritize a proper education.
Another LGBTQ-themed public charter school is the Albert Einstein Academy of Ohio (AEA), more specifically its Lakewood campus. The charter school promotes a “partnership agreement” of “national LGBTQ+ allies schools” with several other LGBTQ public charter schools, including the MCAA and the Alliance School of Milwaukee. This partnership blatantly explains that these public schools view themselves as a political “movement” aimed at helping one another combat a “hostile political climate” to further their mission of “affirming” LGBTQ identities of students.
The AEA’s annual report for the 2022-2023 school year showed that the charter school received approximately $700,000 in federal funding. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that the school received approximately $3.7 million in state funding and $260,000 in federal funding for the 2019-2020 school year. This doesn’t exactly sound like a hostile political climate.
The Alliance School of Milwaukee, which also signed onto the partnership with AEA and MCAA, is a rare public charter school that is part of a larger school district — Milwaukee Public Schools in Wisconsin, which has a policy of keeping the gender identities of students hidden from parents.
The Alliance School also partners with the local Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, an organization known for targeting children as young as 13 with online spaces labeled as “confidential.” The school’s budget for the 2023-2024 school year is approximately $2.3 million, while the district’s is $1.5 billion.
PDE’s investigation also uncovered the “Queer Blended Learning Center” in Arizona. This is a program for LGBTQ students created in part by the online public charter school Arizona Virtual Academy.
Uplift Education in Texas, a public charter school system that claims to have more than 23,000 students, is part of the “Out for Safe Schools program,” which advocates for “the safety, inclusion and celebration of LGBTQ individuals.”
Even in states where we would not typically expect to see such madness, the federal and state governments are subsidizing public schools created for the express purpose of indoctrinating children into a dangerous cult-like ideology.
Americans struggling to pay their bills should rightfully be upset that their elected officials are wasting their tax dollars so recklessly. With our country facing trillions in debt and out-of-control spending — and our nation’s kids failing to learn the basics in their classrooms — funding indoctrination centers disguised as schools should be the last thing taxpayers are forced to do.
Casey Ryan is a staff writer at Parents Defending Education.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.