Love Educational Services LLC is a for-profit consulting firm that provides critical race theory-aligned diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting services to schools, companies, associations, and nonprofits across the United States. The firm was founded and is operated by Bettina Love, a left-leaning academic known for books and articles on the radical-left ideology of “anti-racism” associated with the academic Ibram X. Kendi. Love also founded the far-left Abolitionist Teaching Network, which recruits “activist” teachers to promote critical race theory-inspired curricula and pedagogy. ^{1 2}

Love and her firm were among those profiled by Parents Defending Education in its “Consultant Report Card,” which uncovered through public records research that school districts in five states paid the firm for consulting services including speeches, webinars, and training. ^{3 4}

Background

Love Educational Services was founded in 2017 by Bettina Love, who uses the organization as a pass-through entity for personal consulting services. Bettina Love is a prolific author and commentator on social and racial curricula and education policies in addition to her full-time work as an assistant professor of elementary and social studies education at the University of Georgia. Through the firm, Love has consulted for public K-12 School districts in California, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. ⁵

Bettina Love

Bettina Love is the principal of Love Educational Services and founded the firm in 2017. She is a Georgia Athletic Association-endowed professor of elementary and social studies education at the University of Georgia. Prior to joining the university in 2011, she taught in the education departments at Northern Kentucky University and Georgia State University, where she earned a Ph.D. in education. ⁶

Love has written books titled We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South. In 2016, Love was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. ⁷

In 2020, Love founded the Abolitionist Teaching Network, a left-leaning organization that advocates for critical race theory-aligned curricula in K-12 classrooms. ⁸

Consultant Report Card

Love Educational Services was among the firms and consultants profiled by Parents Defending Education in its “Consultant Report Card,” which uncovered through public records research that school districts in five states paid the firm for consulting services including speeches, webinars, and training. ⁹

According to Parents Defending Education, clients of the firm included the San Diego Unified School District and Castro Valley Unified School District in California; Oakland Public Schools in Michigan; the Newark, New Jersey Board of Education; Charleston County School District in South Carolina; and Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin. ¹⁰

Contracts described in the report showed that the San Diego school district paid the firm $11,000 for a keynote speech; that Oakland, Michigan schools paid the firm $8,000 for a one-hour webinar on “Abolitionist Teaching”; and that Charleston County, South Carolina paid $3,500 for consulting services. ¹¹

1. “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/
2. “About.” BettinaLove.com. Accessed December 3, 2021. https://bettinalove.com/about/
3. “About the Consultant Report Card.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed December 3, 2021. https://defendinged.org/case-study/about-the-consulting-report-card/
4. “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/
5. “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/
6.  ^[1] “Curriculum Vita.” BettinaLove.com. Accessed December 3, 2021. https://bettinalove.academia.edu/BettinaLove/CurriculumVitae#:~:text=Love%20604F%20Aderhold%20Hall%20Department,EFT%20Research%20Tenure%20Status%3A%20Untenured
7. “Curriculum Vita.” BettinaLove.com. Accessed December 3, 2021. https://bettinalove.academia.edu/BettinaLove/CurriculumVitae#:~:text=Love%20604F%20Aderhold%20Hall%20Department,EFT%20Research%20Tenure%20Status%3A%20Untenured
8. “Home.” Abolitionist Teaching Network. Accessed December 3, 2021. https://abolitionistteachingnetwork.org/
9.  “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/
10. ^[1] “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/
11. “Love Educational Services LLC.” Parents Defending Education. Accessed November 13, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/love-educational-services-llc/