Sharif El-Mekki is essentially “bringing in segregation by a different and more socially and politically acceptable name.”
El-Mekki, a former teacher and principal, founded the Center for Black Educator Development (CBED) in 2019. The organization envisions a world where “all black students are taught by high-quality, same-race teachers” and where “all teachers demonstrate high levels of expertise in anti-racist mindsets.”
According to a report by The Free Press, CBED has trained thousands of teachers nationwide in “education activism” aimed at combating what it claims is the "inherent" racism within the US education system. The group’s materials, such as “The Anti-Racist Guide to Teacher Retention,” were developed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and describe education as a “political act” that can “upend white supremacy and a racist history of using education as an oppressive social force.”
"Every lesson plan is a political document, and every classroom interaction a political statement,” the guide claimed.
CBED has received nearly $20 million in funding, including donations from prominent left-wing organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. In 2023, El-Mekki received a salary of $233,410 from the nonprofit, The Free Press reported.
Dr. Mika Hackner, a senior research associate at the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, expressed concern about El-Mekki's approach.
“He started up this organization, which on paper sounds like a really wonderful endeavor, getting more black teachers in the classroom,” Hackner told the Free Press. “But if you scratch beneath the surface—not even beneath the surface, it’s on their website—he’s propagating some pretty dangerous and divisive ideas.”
Hackner added that what El-Mekki is doing is essentially “bringing in segregation by a different and more socially and politically acceptable name.”
El-Mekki's ties to radical activism trace back to his childhood, having attended a Black-Panther-inspired "freedom school." Both of his parents were members of the Black Panther Party, and El-Mekki is pictured on the nonprofit’s website wearing a Black Panther shirt.
During middle school, El-Mekki lived in Iran, where his mother, a Muslim convert, relocated the family because she wanted her children to "witness a country united in its efforts to make a change," according to a biography published in 2020. El-Mekki has since praised the Iranian education system, highlighting its emphasis on producing engineers, doctors, and scientists.
Despite these radical views, El-Mekki’s organization has been awarded over half a million dollars in contracts from the Philadelphia School District over the past two years. CBED runs a summer program designed to teach a “culturally responsive, affirming, and sustaining early-literacy curriculum” to address “educational inequalities and our nation’s racist history.” The organization is also expanding its influence beyond Pennsylvania, having secured contracts with school districts in California, Texas, and New York.
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