Education First Alliance PAC is a right-of-center political action committee (PAC) based in North Carolina focused on parental rights, transgenderism, and school choice. In 2023, Education First Alliance published an investigative report implying that three top North Carolina universities were engaging in gender transition of toddlers as young as two years old; the subjects of the report and left-leaning media outlets denied the assertions and disputed the report’s conclusions. ^{1 2}

Activities

Education First Alliance PAC criticizes left-of-center social ideologies in education and child health care with a focus on North Carolina. It has released articles on gender ideology, social-emotional learning, indoctrination in the school system, and critical race theory. ³

Education First Alliance reports its top issues are restoring human dignity, promoting student achievement, protecting parental rights, defending women’s sports, increasing school safety, combatting waste, fraud, and abuse in North Carolina, ensuring local authority over school, and promoting school choice. ⁴

Controversy

Transgender Toddlers

In May 2023, Education First Alliance PAC released a report claiming that medical schools within the state of North Carolina were conducting gender transitions on toddlers while simultaneously training future primary care doctors to engage in experimental gender treatments for children as young as two years old. According to the report, written by Sloan Rachmuth, the founder and president of Education First Alliance, Duke Health was conducting gender transitions on patients as young as two years old, UNC Health on patients as young as three years old, and ECU Health on patients as young as four years old. In the report, Rachmuth claimed that a doctor at Duke could “see a 2-year-old girl play with a toy truck, and then begin treatment for gender dysphoria.” ⁵

In response to the report, ECU Health stated that it “does not offer gender-affirming surgery to minors nor does the health system offer gender-affirming transition care to toddlers.” Likewise, Duke School of Medicine stated that “online misinformation about toddlers starting gender transitions at Duke is false.” ⁶

The controversy appeared in part to be centered on two distinct understandings of gender transition. While authorities at the North Carolina medical facilities at the center of the controversy denied providing gender-transition surgeries or even gender-transition-related hormone therapies to minors, they did not deny providing social gender affirmation to young children. Additionally, documentation provided by Education First Alliance PAC revealed ECU Health, Duke Health, and UNC’s Department of Psychiatry considered toddler patients for evaluation for gender dysphoria or for exploring other forms of non-medical gender-affirming care. ⁷

While the original Education First Alliance PAC report did not explicitly claim that “gender transition” at the North Carolina medical schools included both medical and social transition, it did imply that to “affirm” gender meant to “chemically sterilize and castrate.” ⁸ Following the publication of the Education First Alliance PAC report, right-of-center media outlets like the Epoch Times published articles asserting that “toddlers as young as 2 [are] undergoing mutilation/sterilization by NC medical system, journalist alleges.” ⁹

At the same time, left-leaning media outlets, including the Associated Press ¹⁰ and FactCheck.org, published pieces claiming that the Education First Alliance PAC report was false based upon the assurance that the facilities were not medically transitioning toddlers. ¹¹

Funding

Education First Alliance PAC received $27,179.38 in donations from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022. Donations came from individuals in North Carolina and California. ¹² From January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023, Education First Alliance PAC received $1,880 in donations, most of which were un-itemized individual contributions. ¹³

People

The president of Education First Alliance PAC is Sloan Rachmuth. ¹⁴ Rachmuth is also the executive director of Pen and Shield Media, ¹⁵ a right-of-center investigative journalism organization. ¹⁶

According to LinkedIn, Rachmuth has a degree in psychology from Harvard University .¹⁷

1. Phillips, Aleks. “Furty at Gender Transition for Toddlers Prompts Denial From Medical Schools.” Newsweek. May 5, 2023. https://www.newsweek.com/fury-gender-transition-toddlers-prompts-denial-medical-schools-1798683.
2. Yandell, Kate. “Young Children Do Note Receive Medical Gender Transition Treatment.” FactCheck.org. May 22, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.factcheck.org/2023/05/scicheck-young-children-do-not-receive-medical-gender-transition-treatment/.
3. “Blog.” Education First Alliance PAC. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.edfirstnc.org/blog/.
4. “Issues.” Education First Alliance PAC. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.edfirstnc.org/issues.
5. Rachmuth, Sloan. “Transgender toddlers treated at Duke, UNC, and ECU.” Education First Alliance PAC. May 1, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.edfirstnc.org/post/transgender-toddlers-treated-at-duke-unc-and-ecu
6. Phillips, Aleks. “Furty at Gender Transition for Toddlers Prompts Denial From Medical Schools.” Newsweek. May 5, 2023. https://www.newsweek.com/fury-gender-transition-toddlers-prompts-denial-medical-schools-1798683.
7.  Phillips, Aleks. “Furty at Gender Transition for Toddlers Prompts Denial From Medical Schools.” Newsweek. May 5, 2023. https://www.newsweek.com/fury-gender-transition-toddlers-prompts-denial-medical-schools-1798683.
8. Rachmuth, Sloan. “Transgender toddlers treated at Duke, UNC, and ECU.” Education First Alliance PAC. May 1, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.edfirstnc.org/post/transgender-toddlers-treated-at-duke-unc-and-ecu
9. “Ji, Sayer.” “‘Transgender’ Toddlers as Young as 2 Undergoing Mutilation/Sterilization by NC Medical System, Journalist Alleges.” Epoch Times. May 6, 2023. Archived May 6, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230506190130/https:/www.theepochtimes.com/health/transgender-toddlers-as-young-as-2-undergoing-mutilation-sterilization-by-nc-medical-system-journalist-alleges_5244365.html
10. Marcelo, Philipp. “ North Carolina hospital: We are not ‘transitioning’ toddlers.” Associated Press. May 9, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-transgender-unc-duke-644667457768.
11. Yandell, Kate. “Young Children Do Note Receive Medical Gender Transition Treatment.” FactCheck.org. May 22, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.factcheck.org/2023/05/scicheck-young-children-do-not-receive-medical-gender-transition-treatment/.
12. “Education First Alliance PAC.” Federal Election Commission. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00806554/?tab=raising.
13. “Education First Alliance PAC.” Federal Election Commission. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00806554/?tab=raising.
14. “Meet the Team. Education First Alliance PAC. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.edfirstnc.org/teamedfirst.
15. “Sloan Rachmuth.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sloan-rachmuth-59b312b/.
16. “Blog.” Pen & Shield Media. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.penandshieldproject.org/blog
17. “Sloan Rachmuth.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sloan-rachmuth-59b312b/.