Dupage Policy Journal

Burr Ridge business owner Margot Henshaw disagrees with the Illinois State Board of Education’s selection of Tony Sanders as the next state superintendent.

Henshaw pointed to Sander's network. 

“While I am not familiar with Superintendent Sanders, all should be aware that in 2020, so - under his aegis, U-46 began 'partnering with' Panorama Education,” Margot Henshaw told Dupage Policy Journal. “Panorama Education is a company specializing in Critical Race Theory propaganda distribution. It is owned by the daughter and son-in-law (Xan Tanner) of Merrick Garland.”

Henshaw emphasized that Garland is the incumbent Attorney General of the United States, "who unleashed the FBI on parents who objected to their school boards forking over millions of their property tax dollars to indoctrinate their children with that will not make them into productive or successful adults.” 

“At Hinsdale Central, the administration was well aware that parents would not approve of the program - all materials were not to leave the building and adult aides were told if they took the material or were caught copying any of the material, they would be terminated," Henshaw said. "So this was to be hidden from the parents of Hinsdale Central because the adults at HCHS wanted to secretly indoctrinate the students. We can only guess if U-46 parents were aware of Panorama Education and liked what they heard. What we do know is that it did not appear to help their students boost scores -   26% are proficient in math, 27% are proficient in reading.  Are these numbers to which Illinois parents should aspire?”  

While “Sanders is described as being innovative," Henshaw said, he opined that "In education - as we have seen with the eschewing of phonics for 1st and 2nd graders- innovation is not always positive.” 

“Studies have shown that upwards of 90% of children that are not deaf codify reading learning by employing phonics.  Whole language is not helpful to most children younger than third or fourth grade. But many school districts continue to introduce this method in first grade, wasting time and frustrating students. Then they wonder why the reading scores are so low, as in Mr. Sanders' U-46 district. Maybe a little more emphasis on phonics would help. That, and a little less time spent on Critical Race Theory, etc.”

In 2021 it was revealed that Garland’s daughter Rebecca Garland is married to Alexander “Xan” Newman, co-founder of Panorama Education, Will County Gazette reported. Panorama Education contracts with school boards across the country to offer “social-emotional learning.” The company is unabashedly leftist even though its mainstream of income appears to come from public school systems. For example, the company offered up a book list via Twitter including a work by former leftwing terrorist Willam Ayers. Garland’s office was also in close contact with the NASB in the weeks leading ups to an announcement labeling parents at a school board meeting as a threat. This has led many to speculate the original letter was drafted with Garland’s assistance.

Sanders was promoted to the state superintendent despite a nine-year tenure at U-46 that Wirepoints pointed out ended with poor outcomes for many students. “At U-46, just 1 in every 10 minority students can read at grade level. For all students, it’s just 2 in 10. Sanders has been in the district since 2007 and was named superintendent there in 2014,” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner wrote.

Wirepoints followed up on Facebook nothing that "Anybody following Wirepoints’ recent reporting on Illinois’ educational crisis already knows the numbers: statewide just 1 of every 10 black students can read at grade level, and for Hispanics, it’s just 2 in every 10. For white students, it’s a better but still dismal 4 in 10. It’s not an exaggeration to say the state’s public schools are condemning an entire generation of #Illinois children to failure.” And when the governor had the opportunity to name a new superintendent to lead the state, Wirepoints opined Pritzker "could have picked somebody to shake up the system, somebody whose district was actually leading the state in reading and math outcomes. Maybe somebody from outside the system or outside the state. Somebody who would, finally, prioritize merit, achievement and competence. Somebody who would obsess about dramatically raising student scores.” 

But that didn't happen, Wirepoints added. "Instead, Pritzker chose Tony Sanders, Superintendent of U-46 in #ElginIL, the state’s second-largest school district with 35,000 students. Sanders' record at U-46 is dismal. There, just 1 in every 10 minority students can read at grade level. For all students, it’s just 2 in 10. Sanders has been in the district since 2007 and was named superintendent there in 2014, so he owns those numbers.”

Sanders became the superintendent of Elgin-based School District U-46 in 2014. Elgin U46 is the state’s second-largest school district with over 39,000 students in 40 elementary schools, eight middle schools, and five high schools. He received criticism after several incidents of bullying were publicized. “They are letting the anti-mask children –– they’re calling them –– be assaulted, literally assaulted, and they are congratulating those students,” Elgin parent Joshua Martin told the Kane County Reporter. “She got her hand shaken by the teachers and my child.” U-46 also continued a mask mandate policy after mandatory masking was ruled unconstitutional. That rule would have enacted mandatory masking based on Covid rates in the school district.