The Learning Alliance is a nonprofit that has been working with the School District of Indian River County to get children ready for Kindergarten and get them on reading level by 3rd Grade. The goal is to get to 90% of children being able to read at grade level by 3rd Grade.
The Learning Alliance is also behind the Moonshot Programs in the District as well.
Given there’s been some concerns floating around the past few months about apparently some people wanting to get rid of the Learning Alliance, I thought I would take the opportunity to address this concern.
I will say that the advocates I know currently do NOT have any interest in scrapping the Learning Alliance. However, this article will seek to serve to give explanation as to why some may not trust the Learning Alliance.
Moms for Liberty – Indian River, Florida Chairman Jennifer Pippin said “Moms for Liberty Indian River, FL has never as an organization wanted to remove The Learning Alliance or any other organization from SDIRC. SDIRC has many 501c3 non profit organizations that partner with them and if their goal is to help educate children M4L supports those non profits. There is ZERO proof that our organization has wanted to cancel this or any other non profit here in Indian River.”
So on the record, School Board Member Jackie Rosario (District 2) and Candidate Thomas Kenny (District 4) have NO INTENTIONS of getting rid of the Learning Alliance.
Rosario said “The Learning Alliance’s relationship with the District has been positive and I look forward to them continuing to work with the District.”
Rosario has been supportive of keeping the Learning Alliance. She continues to support their work within the District.
Kenny said “I never said I wanted to get rid of the Learning Alliance. In support, I’ve actually attended their events. Furthermore, those who say these things are on the defensive because their voting record against parental rights speaks for itself.”
I, the author of this article, am with the Learning Alliance at least on their goal of getting 90% of children to be able to read by the 3rd Grade. I think that specific goal is very admirable. There may be other things with this organization I have to look at, but I find things can be fixed, depending on whether or not there’s other actual issues there.
My only intention with this article is to show a few areas of why some citizens do not trust the Learning Alliance.
In 2020, Learning Alliance Co-Founder and CEO Barbara Hammond spoke at the Indian River County Commission Workshop on the Children’s Services Reference and Ordinance. Hammond had mentioned her fellow Co-Founder Barbara Remmington had a meeting with the Oak Foundation about the Learning Alliance’s work improving academic achievement here in Indian River County, Florida.
What is the Oak Foundation, according to its’ website, is an organization that addresses “issues of global, social, and environmental concern.” The Oak Foundation writes grants to various organizations.
The Oak Foundation was researching who was doing the most effective things for improving education across the United States. They found the Learning Alliance to be one of those organizations.
Hammond said that Representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were present at the meeting with the Oak Foundation.
Many people across the United States, including Indian River County residents, have grown to not trust Bill Gates and his foundation. Gates has done various things people from many walks of life would not approve of:
Bill Gates has previously given money to Planned Parenthood. Bill Gates’ Father, William Gates, was the Head of Planned Parenthood at one point. You can click here to read the transcript from the interview with PBS where Bill Gates admits this about his father.
Bill Gates has advocated for getting rid of Meat and replacing Meat with Fake Meat.
Bill Gates has advocated for blotting out the sun by placing dust in the atmosphere. This idea has been floated by the World Economic Forum.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also collaborated with the World Economic Forum.
For those reasons above (and I’m sure there’s more), that is probably why (or part of why) people do not trust Bill Gates. So saying that your organization was at the same meeting as representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is not a great selling point based off of what I have above, especially for looking to promote anything here in Indian River County.
The Oak Foundation is listed on the World Economic Forum’s website as well.
The World Economic Forum infamously tweeted in 2016 “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better”
The article linked in that tweet on their website has since been removed. You can click here to read an archived copy of it.
The ideas expressed in that article is something that sounds way too controlled and reminiscent of the 19th Century ideas of Utopia, which has and always will be, an impossibility to achieve. Each time people go for that it never works.
While the World Economic Forum on the surface appears to have good intentions, they have discussions about things that have concerned some, such as microchips in pills for insurance companies to track people to see if they’re actually taking their medication and claiming the amount of people on the planet are the source of a lot of the problems the World Economic Forum seeks to solve.
There’s also the concept of Stakeholder Capitalism that the World Economic Forum’s Founder and CEO Klaus Schwab has been pushing since the 1970s. This is basically where corporations should not focus on making money for their shareholders, but rather work towards “long-term growth and prosperity” for stakeholders.
The Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Index is another issue that many are irked about and the fact the WEF is looking to resolve Climate Change. The ESG Index basically, according to an article from Hillsdale College, forces out companies do not use Stakeholder Capitalism. The issue of Climate Change has faced immense criticism for possible Scientific inaccuracies, along with criticism over using Extreme Climate Models as selling points to fight Climate Change, making it a worse issue than what it actually is.
Residents have come to not trust the World Economic Forum, especially with its Great Reset initiative. Hillsdale College wrote a great article on the Great Reset. Click here if you would like to read it and learn more about the Great Reset.
This here (and I’m sure other reasons) has caused some citizens to not trust the Learning Alliance here in Indian River County.
While these meetings may have been an opportunity to show “hey here’s this awesome stuff we do that’s making an impact with kids and education,” I don’t think mentioning an organization connected to the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are exactly great selling points when attempting to persuade the County Commission to pass something.
County Commission District 4 Candidate Joann Binford (who Indian River News has endorsed), came across the Children’s Trust and saw some issues, of which I agree with. 12 years locked into a contract with no exit clause to it. Not only that, but it did not have enough mechanisms to be held accountable to the public. I saw no guarantee of who would be using the funds. Even then, if it did pass and the citizens of Indian River County did vote it into existence, the screening and accountability criteria for the Children’s Trust is so impractical that it wouldn’t even be worth getting money from it.
I understand we have serious issues here in the County that need to be addressed, we can probably get this handled more efficiently without Government intervention. I’ve found through my own observations, that when Government gets involved, it only makes things worse for people. It would be better for privately funded, responsible, nonprofit organizations to step in to help with these issues. There’s enough people in the County and surrounding that can help to fund something.
I hope this helps to give some insight as to why some may not trust the Learning Alliance and that this serve as a massive wake up call to Indian River County, especially those who are involved with the Learning Alliance, specifically the ones who are former Fortune 500 CEOs, according to what Hammond said at that Workshop. I don’t think the people involved with this organization want it to look bad in the public eye. I personally would like to see this Organization meet its’ goal and be able to help children across the United States, if not around the world.
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