Report: Biden Education Department Issued Over $1 Billion in DEI Grants
Parents Defending Education researcher, Rhyen Staley told Fox Digital that the report likely undercounts the actual number of grants given, because researchers were conservative in determining which ones met their criteria.
According to a new report from Parents Defending Education (PDE) the U.S. Department of Education spent at least $1 billion on grants to fund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training in schools since 2021.
The report which was first reported by Fox News Digital was the culmination of nearly four years of research using publicly available data from the Department of Education to determine the number and dollar amount of the grants given to students and schools with a clear DEI “motive.”
From 2021 to present, PDE found the Biden administration awarded 229 grants across 42 states and Washington, D.C. that met that criteria.
According to the report, of the $1 billion in grants $490,000 was spent on race-based hiring, $343,000 went for general DEI programming, $169,000 for DEI-based mental health training and programming, totaling just over $1 billion. The numbers have been rounded up for this article.
Key Takeaways from the report;
- Multiple grants feature programming that advances race-based teacher recruiting, hiring, and training, including the use of race-based affinity groups.
- Several grants were issued for youth activism programming widely used in far-left ethnic studies courses.
- A $4,000,000 grant was given for a 3-week residential “culturally responsive” computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders.
- Grants often feature Social, Emotional Learning (SEL) programming that uses curricula like Second Step and Harmony, as well as transformative SEL.
- The University of Iowa received a grant award of $1,261,718 to train 40 elementary teachers to “enact equity-centered education” in partner K-12 districts.
- The University of Missouri – St. Louis was awarded a $306,209 grant to train school counselors in Trauma-Informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL).
- The School District of Philadelphia was given $3,973,175 for its restorative justice program that is modeled after Oakland Unified School District’s (CA), and a program advisor is a far-left activist and former Communist Party USA member.
- A Michigan school district spent over $38,000 on an equity consultant for a one-day professional development and copies of their book.
Parents Defending Education researcher, Rhyen Staley told Fox Digital that the report likely undercounts the actual number of grants given, because researchers were conservative in determining which ones met their criteria.
The future of DEI grants is dim given President Trump’s desire to eliminate the Department of Education and the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to root out government waste an inefficiency.
Don Irvine
Donald Irvine is the chairman of of Accuracy in Academia (AIA), a non-profit research group reporting on bias in education. Irvine follows his father’s legacy, Reed Irvine, to critically analyze the liberal media’s bias and brings over thirty years of media analysis experience. He has published countless blog posts and articles on media bias, in context of current events, and he has been interviewed by many news media outlets during his professional career. He currently hosts a livestream weekly show on AIA’s Facebook page which discusses current events.
Irvine graduated from the University of Maryland and rose up the ranks to become chairman of Accuracy in Media until his transition to AIA.
He resides in the suburbs around the nation’s capital and is a proud father and grandfather.
