Department of Education spent $1 billion on DEI since 2021, report shows

What would you do with $1 billion?

If you’re in Joe Biden’s Education Department, that money is best spent on hundreds of DEI programs designed to promote ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ in public schools.

A new report from Parents Defending Education reveals the Biden administration spent more than $1 billion to entrench “far-left ideologies in education” since taking office in 2021.

Some examples include nearly $4 million given to Philadelphia’s school district for a restorative justice program headed by a former Communist Party USA member, Fox News reported. The network also found $4 million “given for a 3-week residential ‘culturally responsive’ computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders; and a $38,000 grant to a Michigan school district for a one-day professional development training by an equity consultant, along with copies of the consultant’s book.” 

The report, which includes extensive documentation, considered grants that are committed (or promised) as well as those that have already been disbursed. It counted 229 total grants touching 296 school districts and 6.7 million students, but the number of districts and students “is likely much higher,” the report says. Grants went to 42 states and Washington, D.C. 

The funding falls into three buckets: 

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring, including race-based recruiting and training: $489,883,797.81; 

• DEI programming and trainings such as youth activism and restorative practices: $343,337,286; 

• DEI-based mental health and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) training programs: $169,301,221. 

The report found multiple grants with “programming that advances race-based teacher recruiting, hiring, and training, including the use of race-based affinity groups” and several youth activism grants that used programming found in “far-left ethnic studies courses.” 

It also found $1.2 million for the University of Iowa to “train 40 elementary teachers to ‘enact equity-centered education’ in partner K-12 districts,” and $300,000 for the University of Missouri-St. Louis to “train school counselors in Trauma-Informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL).” 

The Montgomery County school district in North Carolina received $21 million to hold monthly trainings for teachers on how to “support diverse students through equitable instructional and disciplinary practices to increase student achievement and decrease incidences of inequitable disciplinary practices.” 

In Michigan, Ypsilanti schools got $15 million for a training program to “reduce equity gaps” and “assess educator effectiveness.” The district spent $19,500 of those funds on a consultant for a one-day seminar on “culturally responsive” teaching, and another “$19,250 to buy copies of the consultant’s book, according to the report. 

Rhyen Staley, a researcher for the grassroots parents’ group, told Fox it’s clear Biden has been “incentivizing” far-left ideologies over sound instruction methods, hurting students. 

“The only people or groups to benefit from the enormous amount of grant funding are the universities, administrators, and DEI consultants, at the expense of children’s education,” he told the network. “This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education, instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI.” 

Michele Exner, a senior advisor at the parent group, called the spending wasteful in light of U.S. students routinely failing to meet proficiency on national tests. 

“Over one billion dollars squandered on progressive pet projects all while American students’ academic performance continues to plummet,” she told Fox, before laying into Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “Under Secretary Cardona, this organization has been a complete farce that has failed families and students time and time again. This will be the legacy of the Biden administration’s Department of Education.” 

Nearly one-third of public school children were behind grade level at the end of last school year, Fox reported, based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics.  

But the DEI spending spree will likely stop after Donald Trump is sworn into office next month. Trump has pledged to dismantle the DOE and turn its responsibilities over to the states or other federal agencies. 

Exner says it can’t come too soon. 

“Families are fed up and are excited for January when we will have new leadership in the nation’s capital who will focus on getting this toxic and divisive waste out of our education system,” she told Fox.