A black nationalist and advisor to Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has pulled in $20 million from nonprofit groups, the government, and grantmakers while promoting the re-segregation of public schools. Sharif El-Mekki, a member of the Iranian-aligned Black Panther Party, has made a name using his nonprofit group—the Center for Black Educator Development (CBED)—to push for an education policy where “all black students are taught by high-quality, same-race teachers.”
Additionally, El-Mekki says he envisions enacting requirements that “all teachers demonstrate high levels of expertise in anti-racist mindsets.” In 2022, he served on the Education and Workforce Advisory Committee, which was part of Gov. Shaprio‘s transition team.
TRAINING RADICAL EDUCATORS.
CBED has become one of the forefront groups in training educators across the U.S., focusing on “education activism.” In essence, the group pushes teachers to promote radical political agendas that advance the ideological aims of far-left activists and would-be left-wing revolutionaries. Founded by El-Mekki in 2019, CBED publishes a teaching manual entitled ‘The Anti-Racist Guide to Teacher Retention,’ co-developed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education under Gov. Shapiro.
The guide defines public education as “a political act” and instructs educators on how they “can upend white supremacy and a racist history of using education as an oppressive social force.” According to the CBED and Pennsylvania government publication, “Every lesson plan is a political document, and every classroom interaction a political statement.”
IRANIAN & CORPORATE TIES.
El-Mekki’s views on education appear to be highly influenced by his upbringing in a so-called “freedom school” run by the radical Black Panther organization. His mother, a Mulsim convert, later moved El-Mekki and the family to Iran so that they could be raised under the guidance of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The young El-Mekki was subsequently instructed in Iran‘s Islamic education system.
The CBED and El-Mekki—who has been praised by anti-white and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan—currently have around $19.5 in assets, with even the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation having contributed $1.4 million to the group in 2020 and 2021. Other financial backers of CBED include NBC Universal, Nike, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Education.
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