Letter From Our Founder

Childhood should be a magical time, filled with curiosity, exploration, and discovery. This exciting open-mindedness sets children up for a lifetime of new friends and new experiences – but some educators aren’t interested in promoting open minds.

In some K-12 classrooms,  ideological approaches place a strong emphasis on identity and division, sorting students into groups based on controversial ideas like “systems of power” and “oppressor/oppressed binaries”, and presenting complex issues with overly simplistic, inaccurate terminology and conclusions.  When curiosity and natural questioning are replaced with rigid frameworks, kids are robbed of opportunities to use their imagination, explore, develop independent judgment, and truly learn.

I’m Mitch Siegler. I’m an Independent who believes in bipartisanship – I’ve supported Democrats, Independents, and Republicans for many years. Collaboration and compromise are my cornerstone principles. I think that high-quality public education, the American middle class, and centrists who build coalitions are all essential for a healthy, pluralistic, democratic society.

After a successful career as an entrepreneur and business executive alongside decades of volunteer service leading nonprofit and community organizations, I founded THINC Foundation to advocate for transparency, honesty, and integrity in the classroom. It’s time to shed light on the hypocrisy, falsehoods, and political ideology that have crept into too many K-12 schools. Parents and communities deserve clear insight into what is being taught, and students deserve an education that prepares them to engage thoughtfully with the world around them.

I call it as I see it – teaching kids to value civics and civil dialogue, know that a rising tide lifts all boats, and appreciate that meritocracy sets the foundation for children to collaborate, compromise, and celebrate differences as they grow up. The opposite effects that stem from ideology – anger, shame, guilt, divisiveness, hopelessness, disdain for free markets, and even overt anti-Americanism – simply have no place in our schools.

I invite you to join with THINC as we promote transparency, honesty, and integrity in the classroom. Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on social media. And please help support our work. The next generation depends on it.

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Mitch Siegler

THINC Founder

Mitch Siegler, <i>THINC Founder</i>
Mitch Siegler, THINC Founder

Mitch Siegler

THINC Founder

Mitch Siegler founded the THINC Foundation, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that strives for greater transparency, honesty, and integrity in the classroom, in 2024. The THINC Foundation fights Liberated Ethnic Studies curricula in K-12 classrooms by conducting research, providing resources to grassroots advocates, and articulating our vision for constructive Ethnic Studies on the national stage.

In 2006, Mitch co-founded Pathfinder Partners, a leading real estate private equity firm. He serves as the firm’s Senior Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee. Pathfinder manages a series of investment funds which own and manage apartment properties in the western U.S.

Prior to co-founding Pathfinder, Mitch founded and ran several international companies. Earlier in his career, he worked as an investment banker advising on scores of mergers, acquisitions, and private financings, and as a venture capitalist, investing in a wide range of emerging technology companies and consumer-related businesses.

Mitch has also held senior leadership roles in several non-profit, civic, and community organizations.

Mitch graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration, with honors, majoring in Finance and Economics from the University of Missouri, Columbia and an M.B.A., with highest honors, from the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School.

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