After leaving the state of NC in financial chaos after just one term, former Governor Bev Perdue founded a cushy little non-profit with the help of Common Core founding father, former NC Governor Jim Hunt.

That non-profit is called DigiLearn.  It’s an incorporated entity.

DigiLearn is arguably a vehicle for Bill Gates to push his latest wave of Common Core through ‘personalized digital learning’ apps and other related support.  Keep reading, you’ll see where Gates is propping up this venture.

Making sure we have the right workers seems to be one of their thrusts per former Governor Perdue:

Perdue: Only way we can compete as nation is to provide the most well-educated worker. #ExecExchange @DigiLearnInst

— Kristen C. Smith (@kcs_tarheel) October 13, 2014

So of course, the focus on being a ‘well-educated worker’ has to follow a child all the way through college:  

Gov Perdue: can’t focus digital opportunities on just K-12.Must approach entire education continuum-early childhood-higher ed#edtechconnect — DigiLEARN (@DigiLearnInst) September 29, 2014

Follow The Money
It appears DigiLearn needed help getting organized and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stepped in with a grant in July of 2013. The grant specifies it was “to develop a business and operation plan”. Gee, sounds like Gates is steering this ship?

Date: July 2013
Purpose: to develop a business and operation plan for the Digital Learning Institute (DigiLEARN)
Amount: $250,669
Term: 15
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Grantee Website: http://www.digitallearninginstitute.org/

About DigiLearn
Their board has one of the Representatives responsible for pushing SB812 (replace Common Core) through the legislature; Craig Horn.  Also notable on the list of the board members is Maurice Green. Green is part of the NC Superintendents Large District power bloc formed earlier this year. One of this superintendent group’s first actions was to recommend a 7 year lock in of Common Core for North Carolina.

According to the ‘About‘ page, “DigiLEARN was founded and is chaired by former North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, with former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer serving as vice chair.”

We know that Perdue, along with NC Superintendent and CCSSO President-elect Atkinson, signed North Carolina up for the Common Core by listing it as a brand name in our state’s Race To the Top application months before the standards were actually released, but what do we know about Geringer?

Some key things I found on Geringer:

• Geringer is an ardent Common Core proponent.
• Geringer is also a fan of big data (see II-F Deeper Into Data and Geographic Scope: National, State, and Local Insights-Part 1).
• Read about Geringer and the “Education Commission of The States“.

Perdue has been taking a “respite” as the Charlotte Observer’s You Schools Blog calls it. That respite involves becoming buddies with Arne Duncan and pushing Common Core via ‘new technologies’, which will of course benefit DigiLearn:

And just last week, Perdue joined the advisory network of Education Post, a new nonprofit run by Peter Cunningham, who served in the Department of Education in the Obama administration. Informed by the politicization of Common Core standards, that group wants to tone down the discourse around education.

Perdue’s first blog post for that site calls for a national bipartisan dialogue among business and political leaders on how classrooms need to change to adapt to new technologies and the modern economy. – Your Schools Blog, Charlotte Observer

Oh look — “Politicization of Common Core Standards”!
Gee, yet ANOTHER education non-profit. 

About Education Post

“We are a non-profit, non-partisan communications organization dedicated to building support for student-focused improvements in public education from preschool to high school graduation.”

Yeah, right.
That could be the tagline from any one of thousands of non-profits out there right now.

Also, the stupid is strong:

ICYMI: Standardized testing, like dentistry and auto insurance, is no one’s favorite pastime, but it saves lives. http://t.co/qqdOUVsvpo

— Education Post (@edu_post) October 25, 2014

Check out ‘Education Post’s’ board, note the money there and in their Fiduciary board.

That Fiduciary board includes a former Apple exec, Eli Broad exec, an Ed director from the Walton family foundation and daughter of former Mayor Bloomberg,  Emma Bloomberg. Take the time to read their Bios.

Fun fact: A WHOIS search on educationpost.org shows the registration has been anonymized and blocked from public inquiry bu WHOISGuard.