FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   June 12, 2022 

Contact: Sheri Few (803)420-1987

Horry County, South Carolina — United States Parents Involved in Education ACTION (USPIE Action) announced its endorsement today of South Carolina conservative candidate David Warren who seeks to serve as Horry County School District Ten Board Member.  

USPIE Action is the legislative affiliate of United States Parents Involved in Education with the shared goal of abolishing the US Department of Education and ending all federal education mandates.  

Founded in 2014, USPIE Action is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that exists to further the goals of freeing the nation’s schools from federal intrusion as they endeavor to impact public policy, influence elections, and support candidates who share their goal to restore local control of education to parents and communities.  

In response to the endorsement David Warner said, “We must have people on school boards who are willing to ask tough questions and understand the layers of indoctrination. We must look at how schools are failing the tax-payers because for far too long schools have made decisions behind closed doors without families and the time for that to end is June 14th.”

The incumbent in this race is happily endorsed by the SC Education Association, the affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA).

David Warner has signed the USPIE Action pledge to restore local control of education to parents and communities and end the mechanism that has forced the Common Core Standards and data-mining standardized tests on America’s schools.   

The national parent group says it looks forward to working with David Warner as a member of the Horry County School Board advising him on education policy issues.

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by New Light Academy Director Adam Mahdavi

An argumentative and cynical spirit is eclipsing American youth.  America’s identity and memory is under assault in its most vulnerable institutions, particularly the institution of education.   This spirit is critical only for the sake of critiquing. This spirit is not one of progress and this spirit of deconstruction continues to slither into every area of American society. Bad actors teach in bad faith aiming to transform American society. 

Movements of pride and clenched fists aim to challenge the American social order. Places of employment, sports teams, and even places of worship now challenge the natural principles of progress, liberty, and success.  In these tumultuous times, we need an institution of light, new light.   Now, America needs strong pillars of light erected, now more than ever.  New Light Academy is the institution to make each student a pillar of wisdom.

Since America offers a great amount of freedom to her citizens, our citizenry needs to stand on the shoulders of Western Civilization, not misrepresent it through a racial consciousness or labels of oppression.   An honest history of America is a history of liberty as it happened. That is not saying America is perfect or has been without fault. However, acknowledging social progress gives hope for more progress. An honest look at history attempts to make students more intelligent and humane, less cruel and more persuasive, less critical.  Otherwise those that cannot think for themselves will have others thinking for them, making decisions for them that the ignorant would not otherwise make. To prevent this kind of slavery, students at New Light Academy are molded to become responsible for the liberty they have been entrusted to uphold and to cherish their right to obtain their American heritage of progress.  By this standard, our students become shining lights in America radiating liberty for themselves and those after them.

South Carolina Preparatory Academy wishes to partner with New Light Academy to build into each and every student in the commercial, family, and public virtues. This partnership aims to break the education mold to uphold and elevate education. We truly believe we need to break the tradition of education in order to preserve education in South Carolina.

So what is New Light Academy and what does it look like?  There is a beautiful answer to that. New Light Academy is a biblical mentoring program.  We partner with an online public charter school that uses a classical curriculum.  We mentor each student to meet their educational potential while developing each heart to be more like Christ. When students come to the New Light Academy campus, they are invited to discover the wonderful ideas that advanced Western Civilization.  They complete their school work, then are encouraged to participate in a biblical approach to government, moral imagination, and cultural reasoning sessions.  These sessions take place after classes which are around lunch time for most public schools.  Students can participate in that civic leadership program or they can go home for whatever they want: basketball, baseball, football, musical instruments or every child’s favorite activity: house chores. The civic leadership sessions are not mandatory.

The way New Light Academy works is with full time mentors enhancing student academic achievement. For four days a week, students come to the New Light campus, accomplish and succeed in their free, online, public, classical charter school classes with a mentor giving them encouragement, individual attention and support each day and each moment. Mentors learn the personality and individual learning needs of each student that enrolls into South Carolina Preparatory Academy, challenging each student to be independent thinkers. 

At the end of each day, students have the choice of returning home via parent pick-up (we are a drop-off only school) or they can participate for a two hours civic leadership training session.  Mentorships are carried out by biblically minded and trusted adults with New Light Academy. At the moment, we are just starting out and are in the developmental stages of New Light Academy. Many logistics have to be worked out with committed parents about schedule times and the location for the campus.

An average day at a New Light Academy campus begins with a Bible devotion every morning. Then students either log onto their computer, put on their headphones to attend their online classes or work on other classwork from another class, getting ahead of the rest of the week (in a perfect world). I heard of one student finishing all their work on Monday and having the rest of the week to become a better musician.

New Light Academy also holds these civic leadership sessions for those not enrolled in South Carolina Preparatory Academy, but those times have to be worked out with the majority of the parents who commit their children to the program.  We plan on having these separate sessions two days a week, three hours each day, focusing on Constitutional videos, civic (and civil) discussions, developing students’ moral imagination and cultural reasoning skills through online courses offered on Hillsdale College, Patriot Academy/Wallbuilders, Thomas Sowell lesson plans and Answers in Genesis online masters classes.  Why wait until the end of high school to train your child to ask and find answers to big questions about life?

Imagine the amount of repetition the average baseball, football, or basketball player exerts to become advanced in their craft.  In order to be great, not just in practice or average game, but when the game is on the line and when it matters the most.  New Light Academy believes students will be better at their unique craft when they have answers to their purpose in life. The big questions about origines, destiny, meaning, and morality matter.  New Light Academy aims to develop young leaders with similar training patterns of practice but in civic knowledge and virtue so that when those students eventually get a job, an internship, a college professor, or a position on a sports team that they radiate as shining lights by having outstanding moral character and work ethic.

At this point we have a lot of interest but very little commitments.  If there are parents who have their kids enrolled into the public school system and are looking for another option to educate their children, they are encouraged to contact New Light Academy director Adam Mahdavi. In order to become a mentor organization, at least 20 students must enroll in South Carolina Preparatory Academy by June 30th, through New Light Academy, which mentors 6th graders through 12th graders. We are working on finding a location as well as enrolling the primary 20 students into SC Prep. However in some areas, we are going to have to get the cart before the horse.

In such a day where most education institutions advance politically leftist ideology on their students, each child, whether homeschooled or private schooled, will have an attempt to challenge, critique, or interrupt their worldview.  At New Light Academy, we mentor students to weather the storm, no matter how high the floods, how hard the wind and rain blows, or how hot the fire roars; we set them to be pillars of light on the solid Rock for stormy nights. At such a time as this, we need strong pillars that shine their lights, burning brightly through each night together and forever more.

For more information about New Light Academy, visit newlightacademy.com or email Adam Mahdavi at lifelonglearnadam@gmail.com.

Proverbs 9:1

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

1 Timothy 3:15

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Matthew 5:14-16

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is heaven.

What is Giving Tuesday?
Join USPIE for Giving Tuesday! #GivingTuesday is a national generosity movement. Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 as a way for people to do good. Over the past decade it has grown into a worldwide movement that inspires millions of people to give and collaborate.

Why USPIE?
USPIE is a nonprofit, nationwide coalition that seeks to return education to its proper local roots and restore parental authority over their children’s education by helping parents and local communities to escape federal and other national influences. 

It is the vision of USPIE to create a culture where parents, empowered with the authority to choose what and how their children learn, are the undisputed primary educators of their children; where local schools operate in support of families, and where education is unencumbered by federal mandates.

Our Goal
USPIE aims to train parents to run for school board, distribute our Truth and Lies in American Education documentary, publish education policy positions that challenge the current, flawed system, and much more.

Your gift will ensure we can continue to help equip parents with the knowledge and skills needed to fight back against all of the nefarious things happening in government schools, including Critical Race Theory, the sexualization of children, boys playing in girls’ sports, mask and vaccine mandates, and the list goes on.​​​​​​​

Our goal is to raise $15,000 by midnight ET tonight. USPIE is 100% volunteer-based and we count on people like you to help keep us going. Can we count on your support? 

Are you thinking about supporting “parental rights” legislation?  With the enthusiastic endorsement of parents, many state legislatures are filing parental rights bills.  It seems like enshrining parental rights into law would make them more powerful and perhaps provide a legal basis to prevent some of the atrocious infringements on the relationship between children and parents happening today. 

Infringements on parents are happening everywhere.  Schools today are teaching children inappropriate sexual information, teaching children they are nothing more than a color or gender, recruiting children into gender-dysphoria and then hiding the evidence from parents, facilitating access to medical treatment for children without parental consent, and even instructing children not to tell their parents what is happening in school.  And although parents complain to administrators and at school board meetings, it seems nothing changes.

But what if the truth is that parental rights laws will only serve to reduce actual parental rights? 

The Founding Fathers believed our rights are inalienable and incapable of being surrendered or transferred because they are given to us by our Creator.  Our rights, including parental rights, do not come from government, they come from God.  The Founding Fathers also recognized that by codifying rights, the definition and scope of the rights becomes legitimate points of debate; hence they did not originally even want to write the Bill of Rights.

An excellent explanation of Constitutional Rights comes from The Law Firm of Robert J. Frank & Assoc. LLC:

The U.S. Constitution recognizes that human beings have “certain inalienable rights” to which they are entitled which arise as a matter of natural right. The most important of these rights are called “Fundamental Rights.”  Fundamental Rights are rights that are so “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” that “neither liberty nor justice would exist if they were sacrificed.”(1)  The Supreme Court has recognized that fundamental rights include those guaranteed by the Bill of Rights as well as certain liberty, associational and privacy interests implicit in the due process clause and the penumbra of constitutional rights.(2) These special “liberty” interests include “the rights to marry, to have children, to direct the education and upbringing of one’s children, to marital privacy, and to bodily integrity.”(3) 

Think about our current conversation about the right of free speech.  Free speech is now being limited by the arbitrary assertion that only non-offensive speech is permitted.  How about the right to bear arms; as long as the arms are just for sport hunting and are licensed by the government?  Enumerated rights become a target for government control and regulation.

Consider this example from a proposed South Carolina Parental Bill of Rights:

TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN GOVERNMENT INFRINGEMENT ON THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF PARENTS TO DIRECT THE UPBRINGING, EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE, AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN EXCEPT IN LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES,

“Certain” infringement?   Prohibited except in limited circumstances?  Who defines which infringements are prohibited, and which are permitted?  Who defines the exceptions?  Legislation may attempt to define the details, but typically, the implementing bureaucracy has leverage to the details.  Additionally, legislation can be modified over time.  This is very dangerous wording.

U.S. Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) advocates that parents not argue they have rights; instead, recommends parents act on their rights.  If your school is not respecting your rights as a parent, withdraw your child.  Find a different school.  With rights come responsibilities.  Parental rights mean parents are ultimately responsible for their children, including their education.  It may mean some sacrifices are necessary in order to fulfill this responsibility. 

The truth is parents have been given inalienable parental rights by God.  Don’t entrust your rights to be protected by someone else.  Do not support Parental Bill of Rights legislation. Moreover, act on your God-given rights.

• See Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325, 326, 58 S. Ct. 149, 152, 82 L. Ed. 288 (1937); McKinney v. Pate, 20 F.3d 1550, 1556 (11th Cir. 1994) (en banc).
• See Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720, 117 S. Ct. at 2267; Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 712-13, 96 S. Ct. 1155, 1166, 47 L. Ed. 2d 405 (1976).
• Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720, 117 S. Ct. at 2267

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An important message from the Executive Producer of Truth and Lies in American Education

If everyone who receives this will simply give $20, USPIE will be able to distribute the film widely before the end of the year. Please share this with your friends and family! Thank you.

Parents across the country are incredibly frustrated with government school leadership. Parents are systematically being pushed out of a decision-making role despite the fact most states have laws ensuring parental authority over their children. Moreover, school districts across the country are lying to parents and the community.

Some of the most egregious examples include:

– Children being taught about gender alternatives and encouraged to claim a gender counter to reality without parental notification

– Children being frightened about dying from COVID, required to wear a mask to avoid death, and punished if their mask falls off or is removed

– Schools that have adopted Critical Theory, including Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, Critical Feminist Theory, and Critical Queer Theory into school lessons without informing parents and lying about its inclusion

– A well-known candidate for Governor insists parents should have no role in directing the education of their children and doubled down in a subsequent media interview

America’s parents are becoming more and more aware of the truth, and they want the indoctrination and manipulation of their children to stop. Most parents trusted government schools but are now realizing this trust was misplaced and they are mad. Community members are angry their tax dollars are being used to teach divisive philosophies and blatantly wrong information.

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), in its call for federal investigations and sanctions against parents who want authority over what their children learn, have proven their allegiance to leftist pedagogy at all costs. Their claims of violence are unfounded. U.S. Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) does not condone violence but shouting at a school board meeting is not violence. Shouting may be the most appropriate response when the school board arbitrarily cuts off community comments. Threats of physical harm are also inappropriate, but threats to remove people from office or threats of mass exodus from the school are not acts of violence. Nor is protesting in public spaces with signs. If some people become concerned or feel unsafe, local law enforcement is best equipped to respond.

Why are school districts across the country behaving in this similar way, systematically pushing parents out while simultaneously attempting to indoctrinate children to accept socialism, reject the laws of biology, accept racist thinking, become social justice warriors and more? It is not surprising that American parents are responding similarly without some spurious national terrorist organization providing a coordinated strategy. The idea that the National School Board Association would call for the US Department of Justice to label objecting parents “domestic terrorists” is ludicrous and itself an example of creating an explosive situation.

USPIE sincerely hopes local communities and their local school leadership begin to have more constructive conversations, moving back to teaching reading, writing and arithmetic and the virtues that have made America a great country. But if that does not happen fast, USPIE supports parents who pull their kids out of public schools. Perhaps a mass exodus would open some eyes, but more importantly, parents can keep their children safe and stop fighting the corrupt system.

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The federal government has no authority to govern America’s classrooms. The U.S. Constitution enumerates the role of the federal government and leaves education up to the states. In fact, the tenth amendment of the Constitution says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have no authority to supersede state laws that allow parents to decide health decisions for their children. In letters from Secretary Cardona to eight states on August 18, 2021, and in Biden’s address to the nation September 9, 2021, duly elected state officials that enacted laws that prohibit mask and vaccine mandates were warned that local education agencies (LEAs) have the support of the Biden administration to violate these state laws. Moreover, they say that if any LEA loses funding due to noncompliance with state law, the federal government will cover those loses.

The Biden administration has already dumped $130 billion dollars into LEAs across the country to incentivize following CDC guidelines and to advance the equity agenda (a.k.a. Critical Race Theory). Biden added in his remarks, that if the $130 billion wasn’t enough to cover loses to LEAs who don’t comply with state law, he would infuse more money into those states.

Federal interference in education has existed since the U.S. Department of Education was first founded under the Carter administration in 1979.  Federal overreach isn’t just a Democrat idea; it blossomed and grew under Bush Senior and George W. Bush; however, the blatant disregard for duly elected state officials and their authority to govern according to the U.S. Constitution has never been so bold.

Parents and taxpayers must push back against Biden’s tyrannical abuse of power in state education. U.S. Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) stands with the states that have passed laws that protect a parent’s right to make medical decisions for their children.

Once the national political climate turns back to more conservative leadership, it should be an urgent priority to close the US Department of Education and end all federal education mandates. USPIE has written a Blueprint that does this in 5 easy steps. In the meantime, USPIE will provide resources to parents across the country to enable them to protect their God-given rights over health decisions for their children.

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Welcome to a new kind of 21-day challenge!

US Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) developed this activity in response to the 21 Day Challenges focused on racism, equity and diversity being used in schools, churches, businesses and government. Every story has two sides. This is the other overlooked side. Take this challenge if you dare to think critically and rationally. Open your mind.

It has been said it takes at least 21 days to start making achievable change in one’s life, so each day, please read, watch, or listen to the linked resources. Take a few minutes to reflect on your thinking; drawing connections, noting questions, and sitting with any discomfort. We hope this challenge will support a deeper understanding of race and racism in the United States. It represents only a small portion of, and a pathway into, a much larger conversation. Watch this introductory video and join the conversation at USPIE 21 Day Challenge FB Page!

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