Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to the newsmaker line to weigh in on progressive new hire Rachael Maves and the implementation of a liberal K-12 curriculum in Tennessee.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our good friend Laurie Cardoza-Moore, head of the Proclaiming Justice to the Nations and also a member of the Tennessee Textbook and Instruction Materials Quality Commission.
Laurie, you have a problem with a new hire at the Tennessee Department of Education. I’ve read about her, and I think you have a reason to have a problem with her.
Cardoza-Moore: Absolutely. And thank you for having me back on the program. And Tennesseeans have a problem with this appointment. We just saw a nationwide referendum on Tuesday, and we’ve been involved in 90 school districts across the country educating and activating parents to stand up against Critical Race Theory and programs like this. And unfortunately, it has all come about under Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s leadership.
Leahy: Tell us about the name of the new hire. What is her name and what did she promote in California?
Cardoza-Moore: Rachael Maves of course was hired by Penny Schwinn And keep in mind, this is the same Penny Schwinn that gave us Wit and Wisdom. And now we have the slow creep of bringing in Rachael Maves, which I find ironic because she came in September when we were first starting as a commission to start the process of reviewing math textbooks and instructional materials.
The unfortunate reality of what Rachael Maves brings to the table, there’s nothing. I’ve done the research. There is nothing that I have found that shows that she believes in laying a secure, firm mathematical foundation for our children in Tennessee with basic mathematics.
And I’m talking about the grammar stage, starting with K-4. Schwinn should be laying a foundation that ensures our children are taught these basic mathematics skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But unfortunately, she has not hired somebody who specializes in a classical approach that is tried and true.
It’s been trusted and tested throughout the centuries. And unfortunately, we brought in somebody who’s a progressive and who has values that do not reflect our own. It’s interesting because I keep hearing people say that they’re concerned about people coming from California moving to Tennessee and changing Tennessee values.
Well, you know what? We don’t have to worry about them because we brought them into our classrooms, and we’re going to change the whole culture of Tennessee just by educating another generation with failed policies and failed curricula.
Leahy: Breitbart reported last week that this new hire from California at the Tennessee Department of Education, her name is Rachael Maves when in California, she pushed math is a racist plan. But here is what Tennessee Department of Education spokesman Brian Blackley told us at the Tennessee Star on Wednesday. ‘There is absolutely no truth to the headline that one of the department’s employees believes math is racist.’
Leahy: Your response to that, Laurie.
Cardoza-Moore: Well you know? Deny, deny, deny. You know something? Not to speak is to speak. And I have researched and I have a team that’s researching all of her background, what she’s been doing, what she’s been involved in.
I’m looking for the value that Tennesseeans have and what their perspective is about our children’s education. So far, I don’t see anything in her past associations.
My concern is that she is going to push this agenda, this pathway to equitable math instruction that is being pushed in school districts nationwide. This is a new movement.
Leahy: Here is what Breitbart reported. During a time in California, Rachel Mavis promoted the state’s controversial revision of its mathematics framework, one that seeks to train K12 math teachers that ‘white supremacy culture, infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions.’ Have you contacted her?
Leahy: Does she deny that?
Cardoza-Moore: She is the deputy and I have not contacted her. But she is the Deputy Superintendent, or she was for California for Instruction and Measurement, for California DOE.
And in her position, by not speaking against it or clarifying her position, she advocates the adoption of this racist math revisionist platform by essentially accusing, as you said, K12 white teachers of promoting white supremacy, aka white privilege.
And unfortunately, she has not made any statement to clarify her position. Since these stories have come out, she has not put out a public statement stating what she believes. She made a comment.
This is what she stated about what she’s being accused of. And this is about her involvement in California and her association with this math equity agenda.
‘The importance and outcome of math is providing a depth of understanding around mathematical concepts, not necessarily how quickly we can get to the top.
If she’s concerned about mathematical concepts, why is she not pushing going back to the grammar stage and teaching our kids K-4 a strong mathematical foundation by teaching them addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?
That is the foundation that we have to build in our schools in order to ensure that our children are successful in all of our areas.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael has a question for you. Can the department of education in Tennessee do anything to determine the curriculum or how it’s taught in charter schools?
Cardoza-Moore: That’s a good question. They’re not supposed to have any involvement. It’s the charter schools that operate privately, and they make the choice of what they’re going to adopt that the Department of Education in Tennessee has adopted.
Unfortunately, we find that too often in charter schools across the country where they are now starting to compromise and they’re adopting just like some of the private schools we see.
They are adopting the same standards and the same curriculum that is being used in states across the country because it’s cheaper for them to purchase textbooks and instructional materials if they’re doing what everybody else is doing.
Leahy: Laurie Cardoza-Moore, member of the Tennessee Textbook and Instruction Materials Quality Commission and Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. Thanks so very much for that report. Will you come back and give us an update?
Cardoza-Moore: Absolutely. Thank you, Michael.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Christian Television.
Let’s call it like it is. The cause of all of this is Lee. He hired a leftwing activist in Schwinn and he is permitting her to bring in her disciples to push an agenda that is nothing about classical education methodology. A methodology that has worked for centuries.