President Biden’s Education Department is set to spend at least $1 billion on various diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives through 2021, according to a new report.
Researchers found $490 million on DEI recruitment efforts, $343 million on DEI programming, and $170 million on DEI-related mental health. according to a study From Parents Defending Education (PDE), a conservative organization that rallies against “harmful agendas” in the classroom.
PDE analysts combed through reams of public data detailing grants awarded by the department, which has a budget of $238 billion in fiscal year 2024.
“The only people or groups that benefit from massive amounts of grant money, at the expense of children’s education, are universities, administrators, and DEI consultants,” says PDE researcher Ryan Staley. told fox newsWho first covered the report.
“Instead of prioritizing caste-based policies and DEI, this needs to change by putting children’s education at the forefront of education.”
PDE cited several examples in its report, including a $21.5 million grant to Montgomery County Schools to train trainers on “equitable teaching and disciplinary practices to increase student achievement and reduce the incidence of inequitable disciplinary practices.” Includes professional training for.
Another example provided was Ypsilanti Community Schools in Michigan, which received $15.5 million in grant money and spent $19,500 on a consultant for one day for professional development focused on “culturally responsive” teaching.
The school system also gave $19,250 for copies of that consultant’s book.
The School District of Philadelphia received a grant of approximately $4 million for a restorative justice program, which included the support of Fania Davis, sister of former Communist Party member Angela Davis, who the PDE had denounced as “radicalized.”
Other examples cited included a $4 million grant used to support a three-week summer camp focused on “underrepresented student identities in computing”, training 40 elementary school teachers to “implement equity-centered education” Includes a $1.2 million grant and a. A $306,209 grant to teach “trauma-informed, anti-racism social-emotional learning” to school counselors.
PDE researchers cautioned that this figure likely does not represent the full scope of DEI funding by the Department of Education because they have specifically allocated grants for DEI, social-emotional learning (SEL), and youth activism.
“These numbers are based on available data and are not exact. The report warns that the numbers of districts and students are likely to be much higher.
Potential DEI efforts that were not flagged as such may have been under the radar, while districts that had multiple grants were only counted once.
According to the report, at least 229 such DEI-related grants from 2021 were distributed to at least 42 states as well as Washington, DC.
Newly elected President Donald Trump in his Time Magazine “Person of the Year” Interview The publication Thursday called for a “virtual” but not outright closure of the Education Department, which was first established in 1979, although it may face obstacles in Congress.
Meanwhile, he has selected Linda McMahon as his secretary-designer for the department. Conservatives have long called for the Department of Education to be abolished, Going back to former President Ronald Reagan,
The department oversees aid like federal student loans and Pell grants, issues various grants to schools, gathers statistics on education across the country, investigates civil rights concerns, and more.
Trump’s incoming administration has its sights set on a broader overall look at the federal government. He has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-heads of the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE) to tackle problems across the government. DOGE is not technically an actual government department.
DEI programs have long been targets of conservatives, especially in education.
The US public education system ranks 12th globally in terms of development, According to US News and World Report,
In the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, American students ranked 18th Overall globally, test scores have declined in some areas compared to previous years.
Nearly a third of children in U.S. public schools were performing below grade level expectations during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The Post contacted the Department of Education for comment.
(TagstoTranslate)Politics(T)US News(T)DEI(T)Department of Education(T)Education(T)Government Spending
