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U. Missouri, U. Iowa received grants to train public school teachers in ‘antiracist counseling’ and ‘equity-centered education’

The U.S. Department of Education has spent more than $1 billion funding diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in public schools and higher education institutions since 2021, according to a new report.

The findings by Parents Defending Education primarily show DEI funding went to projects in kindergarten through 12th-grade schools, but the department also awarded a number of grants to university programs aimed at grade school students.

“So often, many believe these DEI initiatives are only happening in higher education,” the organization’s Vice President Caroline Moore told The College Fix.

“While this indoctrination occurs in the higher education space, our report clearly shows that these purposefully political and discriminatory practices are just as prevalent in the K-12 space,” Moore said in an emailed statement Monday.

In some instances, the two are directly linked.

For example, the University of Iowa received a $1.2 million grant to train elementary school teachers to “enact equity-centered education” in their school districts, according to the report.

Another $4 million grant to the University of California San Diego funded a program called The LISTEN with the aim of increasing high school participation among “low-income, racial minoritized groups.”

A curriculum linked to the program has students examine the “origins, perpetuation, impact, intersectionality, and levels … of systemic and structural oppression (racism/white supremacy, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and xenophobia …” the report found.

The University of Missouri at St. Louis also received a $306,209 grant to provide “antracist social-emotional” training to public school counselors, according to the report.

Moore said her organization wants to see state and federal leaders revoke or repurpose the grants to benefit all students who are struggling academically.

“We cannot assume why the department is giving so much money to these initiatives, other than that these widespread grants and the use of the word ‘equity’ seem to be embedded in the department’s strategic plan,” she said.

“Equity appears to be the most important priority for this Department of Education,” Moore said.

MORE: Biden-Harris admin spent over $2 billion on DEI in scientific research: report

A senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation believes some of the funding actually may be illegal.

“The significance … is that federal policymakers are using taxpayer money to pay for instruction and teacher training that may violate state and federal civil rights laws,” Jonathan​​​​ Butcher told The Fix in an email Tuesday.

Butcher said DEI programs promote “racial discrimination” and advocate for “racial favoritism.”

“Racial quotas and mandatory affinity groups may violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” he said.

Legality aside, “DEI programs and materials do not make classrooms more tolerant or corporate offices more welcoming,” Butcher told The Fix. “Instead, DEI fosters resentment and using tortured wordplay exercises, manufactures reasons for racial and ethnic minorities to feel oppressed.”

The Cato Institute, a prominent libertarian thinktank, also is calling for an end to DEI funding in education.

“The general ideology of most DEI initiatives is distinctly divisive and chilling, two things that should never describe our government or any of our lauded institutions,” research fellow Erec Smith told The Fix in an email Monday.

Responding to the report, Smith said that money could be better spent on programs that help students of “all races and creeds.”

He said the “woke” ideology is not financially efficient either.

“For example, race-based contracting preferences actually limit competition and, by extension, limit options,” Smith told The Fix. “The mandatory allocation of funds for minority-owned companies allows those companies to demand higher bids. This is not an efficient management of funds.”

The report by Parents Defending Education documents DEI spending by just one agency under the Biden administration.

Another recent investigation found the National Science Foundation also gave more than $2 billion to DEI research over the last three years, The Fix reported.

Some leading Republican lawmakers demanding an end to the ideologically-based funding.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs the House Education Committee, described the $1 billion in DEI spending as “jaw-dropping.”

“PDE’s new report … confirms that this administration was more concerned about contorting the minds of America’s future leaders, rather than educating them,” Foxx stated in a recent news release.

“Fortunately for parents, students, and hardworking taxpayers, DEI, like the rest of this administration, is being bagged up and placed on the curb come January – it’s time to take out the trash,” the North Carolina Republican stated.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make huge cuts to government spending when he takes office in January. Among other things, the Republican leader said he wants to eliminate the Department of Education.

MORE: Senator proposes bill to abolish Education Department after Trump’s promise

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