Late last year, Education Week reported that schools across the country were creating “affinity groups” for students and for staff. These organizations, the outlet claimed, are “meant to be safe space for educators or students who share a common identity.” The outlet noted that many conservative groups argue that these groups serve as a form of segregation.
Parental rights organization Parents Defending Education filed public records requests in four Vermont school districts. In documents shared with Townhall, the record requests revealed that the Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) received a grant to “support school board affinity group(s).” Affinity groups are groups of people segregated by their characteristics, such as race and sexual orientation.
In an email to the school districts about the affinity group, VSBA stated: “Because it’s essential that board members of color have a voice in identifying and removing barriers and developing solutions to create more equitable student outcomes, VSBA’s first affinity group will bring together school board members who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).”
The grant was provided by the McClure Foundation, PDE noted. McClure’s website clearly states that its grant to the VSBA is for “support for equity efforts, including an affinity group for VSBA members of color," while it's overall goal behind all its grants is for “racial equity transformation.”
In a follow-up email to school districts, the VSBA explained: “If you or one of your fellow board members meet the criteria to participate in this group, be looking for more information about this in the next two weeks.” Days later, the VSBA provided a link to a form for potential members to complete.
The emails were sent to the Colchester School District, the Essex Westford School District, the Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District and the South Burlington School District.
"The Vermont School Board Association is so backwards in its thinking that it thinks separating school board members into racially segregated groups is a good idea. It's hard to imagine a better way to sabotage an elected body and by extension, the schools they serve, than to deliberately include and exclude certain members based on the color of their skin,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at PDE told Townhall.
Earlier this year, PDE filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Department of Education against Shelburne Community School in Shelburne, Vermont. The school was promoting the creation of a “BIPOC Affinity Group” for students in grades 3-8 who are black, Indigenous, or people of color.
Yesterday, #DefendingEd filed a Civil Rights complaint with the @usedgov against Shelburne Community School in Vermont.
— Parents Defending Education (@DefendingEd) January 4, 2023
The school’s weekly newsletter promotes the creation of a “BIPOC Affinity Group.” The program description does not make participation open to all. pic.twitter.com/A9wvXWzk86
In April, the department’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the complaint. On May 1, the OCR resolved the complaint and stated that the school district would open the race-specific group to all students.