Dallas ISD has partnered with an allegedly biased non-profit organization to host summer camps for K-5 students ahead of the 2023-2024 school year.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Dallas-based nonprofit Big Thought allegedly offers politically left-leaning academic programming to North Texas students through its arts education, “out-of-school time” programs, summer learning opportunities, and “juvenile justice” intervention services.
Now, Big Thought is putting on a free three-week summer camp for about 700 students at nine Dallas ISD campuses.
“This program specifically is all enrichment. So it’s all partners within the community. Dance, singing, math, science; so you have all these programs that come together to give our kids more than just the math, the science, and making it more fun,” said Dallas ISD Learning Opportunities Coordinator Nina Baxter, NBC 5 DFW reported.
Camp started on July 10, roughly a week after the Texas Education Agency (TEA) published partial results from the 2022-2023 round of STAAR exams, which showed that the share of students scoring at grade level in Algebra I, Biology, and U.S. History dropped by a percentage point each compared to the previous year, with all three scores coming significantly under the statewide averages, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Dallas ISD students in K-5th grade can join us July 10-28 for STEM adventures and creative activities with Dallas City of Learning partners. Choose from nine campuses and sign up today,” Big Thought wrote on its Facebook page, referring to the City’s latest education initiative.
In a previous interview with The Dallas Express, Kelly Neidert of the activist group Protect Texas Kids claimed that Big Thought “peddles in so-called racial equity and social-emotional learning, which are just PR terms for left-wing ideology and politics.”
“Big Thought is a prime example of how outside vendors and organizations are the entry point for so much of the indoctrination that kids are subjected to,” Neidert said.
It is unclear whether Big Thought is including any of its alleged political programming at the educational summer camp. Rather, an emphasis on the arts appears to have dominated the first days’ instructional time.
“What we can really do is sort of light that flame of curiosity and hope that it takes them somewhere,” said Martin Burleson of the Dallas Arboretum, according to NBC 5. “We can kind of just guide them on their way.”
Burleson’s sentiment was echoed by Jerone Roy, a music teacher associated with Empowering Through the Arts.
“Sometimes even spark an interest in something that they didn’t even know they had in them,” Roy told NBC 5. “Music you can hear and you can feel and that’s what gets them going, gets them fired up!”
