Hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic-era federal relief funding, including money intended to help students recover from learning loss, instead went toward "anti-racism" training for teachers and administrators in Albuquerque Public Schools.The district approved $336,500 in American Rescue Plan funds in 2021 for training tied to the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), while accounting records obtained by America First Legal show APS ultimately spent nearly $700,000 on the training program.School district officials told Fox News Digital they could not confirm the spending or how much came from federal COVID relief funds because they did not have immediate access to the records.PISAB, which has received grants from George Soros' Open Society Foundations, has distributed training materials instructing "White folks" to "learn how [they] became white" and defining race as a "specious classification of human beings created by Europeans (whites)" to assign human worth and social status and maintain "power and privilege."GEORGIA DISTRICT QUIETLY TRAINED TEACHERS TO BLAME 'WHITENESS,' 'DECOLONIZE' UNDER FEDERAL CRACKDOWN: REPORTStudents raising hands while teacher asking them questions in classroom.(iStock)At APS, the programming included "Community Conversations," an introductory course centered on "core equity and anti-racism principles," as well as "Introduction to Undoing Racism" and a multi-day "Undoing Racism" workshop.The training was delivered through the Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI), which had a 23-year relationship with PISAB.The effort reached hundreds of district employees after initially focusing on school leadership.
During the 2020-21 school year, APS principals and assistant principals participated in "Community Conversations," a course ARTI "specifically designed" for the district which incorporated PISAB’s organizing principles.By July 2022, at least 721 APS staff members, ranging from teachers to senior...