Subterra Insights, LLC: Targeting Conservative Municipalities to Flip Elections?

By Leah Vandersluis, Concerned Citizen of Montrose

I attended a meeting at the United Methodist Church in Montrose on June 26, which Ellen Angeles announced at the last MCSB District meeting. It was sponsored by Subterra Insights, LLC. Although Subterra promotes itself as a neutral organization on their website, I discovered that there seems to be a hidden agenda to affect change in conservative areas, and they are targeting the upcoming Montrose County School Board election in November.

Led by Rob Rogers and Melissa Hendrix, the website states:

“At Subterra Insights, we are committed to pioneering innovative solutions that drive transformative decisions. One of our most groundbreaking contributions to the political landscape is the Citizen Lifetime Value (CLV) metric. This advanced tool, adapted from marketing analytics, enhances voter targeting and digital advertising, providing a comprehensive, data-driven approach to understanding and engaging voters.” (https://subterrainsights.com/revolutionizing-voter-targeting-with-citizen-lifetime-value-clv/)

This sounds harmless, but at the beginning of the presentation, several videos of Betsy DeVos, her husband and Lance Wallnau talked about the need to take over education (which Mr. Rogers called Christian Nationalism). At the get-go, the stage was clear: to make people think that all conservatives are Christian Nationalists, and how imperative it is to elect people outside of this ideology. There might be some “Christian Nationalists” who want to bring Christianity into the public classroom, but to make a sweeping statement (or impression) is dangerous. 

We have two conservative school board members currently, and they are anything but “Christian Nationalists,” however, they both have a desire to see our public schools effective in raising up well-educated and well-adjusted future leaders of our country.

Mr. Rogers also claimed that “Christian Nationalists” are appealing to voters’ fears to get their support by using deception. Again, this does not apply to Montrose County.

Another disturbing issue was their view on charter schools. They do not believe that charter schools should be public schools. They claimed that certain people are given preference to attend over others, which does not align with the rules of charter schools. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-serve basis, and if there are more students than spaces, a lottery occurs. All children are accepted: ethnicities, genders, disabled, etc. The impression given was charter schools self-ruled and had little accountability, however, that is not true.

In a recent article in The Epoch Times: Why Charter Schools Received $60 Million Boost, it was noted:

1. Charter schools receive “much less than what lower-performing public schools get” (about $3,500 less per student). According to a 2023 report from Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, in 18 cities across 16 states, public-funding for charter schools over the 2019-2020 school year averaged $7,147 per student, or about 30% less than what traditional public schools receive. (MCSD will receive about $11,500 per student this next school year.)
2. “Charter schools across the nation are scoring better than traditional public schools in math, reading, and college readiness assessments.”
3. “According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 60.5% of charter schools are black or Hispanic, compared with 41.9% of traditional public school students.”
4. “Nationally, charter schools provide an average of 16 more days of reading instruction per year than public schools according to a 2023 report by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University.”
5. The report “involved data comparisons from more than 6.5 million students before the COVID-19 pandemic, states that low-income and minority students experienced more academic growth in charter schools. Eighty-three percent of charter schools produced reading scores that were equal to or better than their neighboring public schools…while 75% produced superior math scores.
6. “Perhaps the most revealing finding of our study is that more than 1,000 [charter] schools have eliminated learning disparities for their students and moved their achievement ahead of their respective state performance.” (https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/why-charter-schools-nationwide-just-received-a-60-million-funding-boost-5875921)

My son went to a charter school in Boulder County and it resembled a public school. There was no elitism, favoritism and unaccountability, and the student population was very diverse. I was very involved.

One last point… Mr. Rogers stated that public schools shape civic identity, workforce readiness and basic trust in institutions. Charter schools do this as well, and those that use a classical curriculum instill truth, values, and critical thinking more so than other charter and public schools. As a matter of fact, students in many charter schools learn about civics and how are government is run. Unfortunately, that is not the case for most public school students. Check out this article from the American Federation of Teachers: https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2018/shapiro_brown.

I will give Mr. Rogers credit in that he says that everyone should care about public education in Montrose, and all of us should be familiar with our school board and what is going on in our community. Absolutely!