Will County Gazette

Plainfield School District 202 paid the company of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law a combined $142k over 2019, 2020 and 2021, FOIAs show.

The same company was notably paid $1.8 million by Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia for social and emotional learning. 

Garland, a former nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, made waves for local school boards across the nation when he recently deemed those who attacked educators as “domestic terrorists” worthy of being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Now his connections to Panorama Education are being questioned.

Alexander “Xan” Newman Tanner, who is married to Rebecca Garland, is the co-founder of Panorama Education.

A survey by Panorama Education conducted in Arlington Public Schools in Virginia asked students “how often do you feel that you are treated poorly by other students because of your race, ethnicity, gender, family’s income, religion, disability, or sexual orientation?”

Raj Pillai is a community activist with United4Plainfield who ran for school board earlier this year. He said that type of question is on par with what he and others are seeing locally.

United4Plainfield noted Panorama’s approach is tied up in political funding.

“(The DOJ) essentially characterizes parents that are coming to school boards as domestic terrorists, Pillai told the Will County Gazette. “What that really does is ... (shut) down local voices. They're not allowing local voices and local parents to influence local decisions.”

Panorama has conducted surveys at PSD202 since at least 2020.

Pillai said the company’s surveys “have a specific personal question to children regarding their mental and emotional states.”

“There's currently no information on how the data is being utilized,” Pillai said. “So it's fair to assume the Panorama mines that data and the emotional state of children, which could then be utilized to market more mental health-focused products or services to the parents.”

Despite any political connections, Pillai said the $150,000 PSD202 spent in 2020 on Panorama surveys could have been better utilized elsewhere.

“Why not use that for different types of programs that actually help students deal with the issues that they have on an individual level and let the local school districts or the school board decide how they want to utilize these funds?” he said.

According to Pillai, it appears Panorama’s business model is now tied up in pursuing federal COVID funds that are provided by the federal governments to local schools district but pigeonholed for curriculum spending such as justified by hiring Panorama.

“The money that's being funneled into the district, it's actually also being funneled out to Panorama,” Pillai said.

Garland notably told U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) last week that he did not feel he needed to file an ethics certificate noting the relationship.

Cruz and other senators noted Panorama Education supports critical race theory.

The company received seed money from Facebook and Google. Since 2017, it has received $76 million in investor financing.

Panorama Education recently featured a book list “for educators to enhance your own social-emotional learning” that included an essay by former leftwing domestic terrorist William Ayers. 

Panorama has publicly been linked to contracts with 22 school boards.

In addition to Illinois, Panorama Education is operating in California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

•Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted PSD202 had paid $1.8 million to Panorama, not $142,000.