President of Taxpayer-Funded Antiracist Group Funneled Nearly $300K to Husband’s Law Firm
Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium has longstanding ties to Education Department
The president of a taxpayer-funded antiracist auditing center funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to her husband's law firm and to her son over the past decade, filings show.
Susan Shaffer, president of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, paid her husband Mark Shaffer's law firm $282,996 from 2011 through 2019 for "ongoing legal services," according to tax documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Mark Shaffer is the sole attorney listed on his firm's website.
The consortium has become one of the country's most prominent antiracist auditing nonprofits. It works in 15 states, often in partnership with left-wing organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group, which has ties to the Department of Education, has been exclusively funded by taxpayer dollars since 2017. Susan Shaffer has raked in more than $1.6 million from her antiracist consulting work since 2011.
Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland awarded the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium a $454,680 grant last fall to conduct an audit of the district's K-12 curriculum and hiring policies, the Free Beacon reported in November. The group's tax documents revealed ties to the county government. Ginny Gong, who was listed as the group's director on the its 2018 tax filings, is also the director of a Montgomery County agency.
The consortium's antiracist work is largely funded by taxpayer dollars. Of the $19 million it has raised since 2001, $17 million is from taxpayer-backed government grants. The group has not received a single private donation in four years, though it previously received donations from the Gates Foundation.
Last year, the consortium received a $202,229 bailout from the Paycheck Protection Program. PPP loans were intended to help struggling small businesses survive the economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Shaffer paid herself an average $200,000 in salary and other benefits every year since 2011. Shaffer's pay accounts for roughly 20 percent of what the consortium paid all its employees. Most of the group's officers were not compensated for their work. The consortium's website shows it currently has 20 employees.
The Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium first hired the Shaffer Law Firm in 2008. Sheryl Denbon served as the group's executive director at the time, while Susan Shaffer served as deputy director. The consulting group first reported payments to Mark Shaffer three years later, on its 2011 tax forms.
Susan Shaffer's husband is not the only direct family member profiting from the consortium's antiracist work. The group hired Shaffer's son, child psychologist Dr. Seth Shaffer, to provide support for families during the coronavirus pandemic, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium treasurer Jill Moss Greenberg told the Free Beacon.
The consulting agency "operate[s] with [the] highest levels of integrity" and has "strict" conflict of interest policies, Greenberg said, and takes its stewardship of taxpayer dollars "very seriously."
Antiracism is a profitable industry for consultants and educators. Antiracist consultant and bestselling author Robin DiAngelo charges tens of thousands of dollars for hourlong Zoom appearances. DiAngelo made $12,750 from the University of Wisconsin for a speaking event last summer—70 percent more than a black author who spoke at the same event.
While it's not illegal for nonprofits to hire and pay family members for their work, George Leef, the research director at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, told the Free Beacon that the practice is "highly dubious."
"It seems like a conflict of interest. It seems like nepotism. It seems like a violation of trust to lay out that much money to a relative," Leef said. "Where's the accountability? Any taxpayer-funded organization ought to act as if it's got to maintain the highest standards at all times, and that's not what they're doing here. It looks like it is a highly dubious practice. It looks really bad to do this."
Christopher Rufo, a writer at the City Journal and the director of the Discovery Institute's Center on Wealth and Poverty, told the Free Beacon that the booming antiracist-consulting industry's success relies on dividing America.
"Private consultants are cashing in on the latest ideological fad: so-called antiracism," Rufo said. "They are bilking school districts and abusing employees, all at taxpayer expense. This is now a multibillion-dollar industry that in many cases serves only to divide Americans in schools and the workplace. Taxpayers should demand better for their kids."
Rufo said it's "not surprising" that such practices occur within the antiracist consulting industry.
"Diversity consulting is an industry that is ripe for graft: Its theories are unfalsifiable and its practices require no results," he said. "It's not surprising that families are cashing in—and siphoning off money that should be going to educate children."
The Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium's rise to prominence is due in part to its ties to the Education Department. The department in 2011 awarded the group an equity assistance grant, under which it provided services to 850 school districts in six states in the mid-Atlantic. Its portfolio has since expanded beyond the region. The group works in 15 states and territories, including Kentucky and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The antiracist auditing center's contract with the Education Department survived former president Donald Trump's ban on federally funded antiracism training, which President Joe Biden reversed in January.
The Biden administration has also signaled its support for implementing critical race and gender theory in K-12 classrooms. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona developed and implemented a mandatory course based on critical race theory for Connecticut high school students during his tenure as the state's education director.
UNSTABLE NON-GENIUS: Biden Aides Feared ‘Cranky’ Candidate’s ‘Epic Tongue-Lashings,’ Book Finds
25th Amendment? Disturbing details raise questions about Biden's fitness to serve
A new book on the 2020 election raises serious questions about President Joe Biden's temperament, citing the "cranky" septuagenarian's "willingness to unleash" his fiery temper, especially at the expense of young staffers who dared to speak their minds.
"Biden's temper, and his willingness to unleash it in small group settings, was one reason the people closest to him often avoided pushing him too hard to change his ways or take a particular course of action," write journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency.
Biden's so-called Irish temper, a term the president himself often uses despite its racially charged nature, tended to erupt at younger aides. Greg Schultz and Kate Bedingfield, both in their thirties, were "most likely to get their ears boxed for pushing back on Biden's ideas," the authors write. When he wasn't screaming at them, Biden "had a tendency to talk down" to the "delicate" youngsters.
The authors recount a meeting in early 2019 when a "visibly irritated" Biden "hollered at" and "unloaded on Schultz," who had (rather ironically) advised the candidate to "adjust his tone with younger voters." These new details about Biden's inability to take constructive criticism without lashing out raise serious questions about his fitness to serve as commander in chief and could prompt a discussion about invoking the 25th Amendment.
"Ultimately, Biden made his own decisions, and got cranky when they were made for him," the authors write. "Nobody wants to suffer one of his epic tongue-lashings." The candidate "didn't like to be questioned," which meant that even his most senior aides "conspicuously avoided confrontation" because no one wanted to be on the receiving end of Biden's rage.
Biden's volatile temper almost got the best of him, the authors report, during a July 2019 primary debate, when his future running mate, Kamala Harris, attacked him for befriending racist senators and promoting racist legislation. Biden was "pissed" and "steaming inside" following Harris's broadside, which would prove to be the high-water mark of her presidential campaign. During a commercial break, a seething Biden turned to his podium neighbor Pete Buttigieg and stammered, "This is just a bunch of bullshit!"
Lucky also contains new details about Biden's tumultuous relationship with former president Barack Obama, who was "enamored with" failed candidate Beto O'Rourke in the early stages of the 2020 primary but skeptical of Biden's ability to win. The New York Times previously reported that Obama had warned fellow Democrats not to "underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up."
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