Military Spouses Unwilling To Get In Bed With Charlie Kirk

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue.

In a sad development for wingnuts and grifters, one of the critical economic forces in this great country, the Washington Post reports that a plan for Charlie Kirk's rightwing group Turning Point USA to become a hub for homeschooling parents has all come to naught. Or at least it has for now, with the dissolution of a planned partnership between TPUSA and an Arizona purveyor of educational software called, we shit you not, "StrongMind."

The idea was to build an online education juggernaut that would bring "America First" K-12 schooling to families who are freaked out by all the supposed America-hating and leftist indoctrination in public schools. Not only would it ensure kids get educated in a rightwing bubble, it would be a chance to reap some profits from the paranoia about "leftist indoctrination" that TPUSA has stoked from its founding in 2012.

An internal StrongMind document (how did the Post get these leaks, one wonders!) said the company anticipated the venture would be enormously lucrative, anticipating that once "Turning Point Academy" was up and running, it would eventually reach a full capacity of 10,000 students and generate $40 million in gross revenue. Really gross revenue, if Charlie Kirk was involved.

Instead, it all went to shit last week: The company apparently got nervous when the Post started nosing around, some StrongMind employees said "ick" at the prospect of selling rightwing miseducation, and most critically, a key subcontractor told StrongMind hell no to developing course material for TPUSA. Now all that's left are some shredded rightwing dreams and a pile of soiled diapers.

TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet told the Post that it still intends to go ahead and start an online school with different partners, and that the arrangement with StrongBad had been “nonbinding and nonexclusive.” You just watch, it's going to be AMAZING. Like, probably twice as good as Donald Trump's healthcare plan.

The original plan was to tap a potentially ripe market for "education and media serving families disgruntled with public schools, a flash point in many communities and a key issue on the campaign trail." The very sparse webpage for the academy gives you a taste of TPUSA's pitch to the kinds of parents who might scream at school board meetings and demand that schools not teach anything about America's past that could make white parents sad.

The Left has permeated American institutions at every turn, poisoning American youth against our great nation. In our taxpayer-funded public schools, young people are taught that America is fundamentally evil, that government is always the answer, and that the free-enterprise system is immoral.

Today’s classroom curricula promote a false narrative about America instead of celebrating its remarkable achievements and its foundational values: free people, free enterprise, and free speech.

Mind you, we have never actually seen any public school curriculum documents or lesson plans that say "America is fundamentally evil and government is always the answer," but that may simply demonstrate how cleverly the Left hides its agenda.

The pitch promises curricula that will focus on "American history, our founding principles, the Constitution, and economics," and that what's more, the curricula will provide a "reliable, honest, and quality America-first education—all at NO COST."

Darned if we know how the venture was supposed to make StrongMind $40 million while being distributed for free. Volume, maybe? More shadowy donors? Or maybe the shipping and handling would have been a thousand bucks per pupil per year. Who knows!

The Post notes that right out of the gate, there was at least one tiny glitch in the partnership:

In early discussions last fall, Turning Point USA learned from StrongMind executives that the company relied on labor in the Philippines, according to a person familiar with the conversations. The overseas workforce — tasked with creative efforts, such as graphic design, and confirmed by two additional people familiar with the setup — was notable because of Turning Point’s emphasis on an “America-first education.”

Kolvet explained that because the use of foreign workers would have been an issue for TPUSA's "brand," StrongMind had been asked to pretty please use USA Americans. The Post doesn't quite say whether StrongMind agreed to that, but the plans went ahead anyway.

StrongMind notified employees on Jan. 21 that work with Turning Point USA was underway and that Verano Learning Partners, an associated nonprofit led by the company’s founder and chief executive, Damian Creamer, was “pleased to add Turning Point Academy to its family of schools.”

Of course the CEO is named "Creamer." What else could he be named?

“This private education option will offer K-12 families, nationwide, the choice to enroll in a fully online private school, bring together other families to form a learning pod, or school independently from home,” Cody Bendix, StrongMind’s corporate communications director, wrote on an internal messaging platform, according to screenshots reviewed by The Post.

The Post says the announcement landed for some workers with a pathetic damp thud, like a wet washcloth dropped from 15 feet. Four anonymous StrongMind employees said that several workers expressed misgivings about the partnership in a Zoom meeting.

Three employees said a StrongMind manager told staff that existing course content would mostly be suitable for the academy but that certain details would need to be adjusted or omitted. As an example, the company manager said Turning Point might have problems with a lesson plan using a speech by a Republican president to highlight propaganda techniques, according to people familiar with the comments.

Gosh, which president, we wonder?

The company didn't have any grandiose visions, did it? OK, maybe a little; one document compared the market for online rightwing education to freaking Amazon, Inc, saying the partnership with Turning Point "seeks to do the same for StrongMind and school choice.” Wouldn't the better comparison be Fox News?

Sadly-not-sadly, the whole thing fell apart when a central subcontractor noped out:

The firm selected to help prepare curriculum was Freedom Learning Group, an education company run by military spouses and veterans. Its chief executive, Elizabeth O’Brien, told The Post in a text message last week, “When advised that the ultimate client was Turning Point USA, we notified the curriculum developer that we are terminating the contract.”

Oh no! Mr. Creamer ( snrk! ) let Turning Point know that StrongMind wouldn't be able to help TP American education, and it was as if millions of potential griftdollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Also too, the Post says,

Creamer and other StrongMind executives were also intent on removing the company from the spotlight after learning that reporters were asking questions about its finances and operations, according to a person familiar with their thinking.

Sadly, because the project never got that far, we don't know what exactly would have been in the curriculum. Mostly patriotic glurge and Founder worship, we'd assume, and many explanations of how slavery was unfortunate but temporary , and everyone else was doing slavery anyway, but it was ultimately doomed by the wisdom of the Founders, hooray.

In conclusion, you just wait, Churning Point Academy for Ants will be back on track real soon, and you libs will all be so owned by its educational excellence, just you see, the end.

[ WaPo ]

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