The U.S. Department of Education spent at least $1 billion on grants advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in hiring, programming and mental health training in America's schools since 2021, according to a new report.
Parents Defending Education "PDE", a right-leaning organization that pledges to "reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas," shared its new report exclusively with Fox News Digital.
Researchers at the organization pored through nearly four years of publicly available data from the Department of Education to determine the number of grants and the dollar amount awarded to students and school districts for grants that had a clear DEI "motive."
From 2021 to present, they found the Biden administration awarded 229 grants across 42 states and Washington, D.C. that met that criteria.
According to the report, $489,883,797 was spent on grants for race-based hiring; $343,337,286 went toward general DEI programming; and $169,301,221 went to DEI-based mental health training and programming, totaling $1,002,522,304.81 spent in all.
The total grant amount "incorporates both awarded (committed) and disbursed dollars, as most of the grant money is distributed [a] period of several years," the report states.
Grants that fit into more than one of these categories were only counted once, Parents Defending Education researcher, Rhyen Staley, explained. He also said that their report likely undercounts the actual number of grants given, because researchers were conservative in determining which ones met their criteria. For example, he said PDE researchers excluded examples where they determined DEI was not the goal of the program, even if the grant's abstract used DEI "buzzwords."
Examples in the report include a $3,974,496 grant given to the School District of Philadelphia for a restorative justice program headed by a former Communist Party USA member; a $4,000,000 grant given for a 3-week residential "culturally responsive" computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders; and $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.
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President Biden has signed several executive orders over his term mandating DEI actions in federal agencies.
Fostering DEI in US schools has likewise been a key priority for his Education Department under Secretary Miguel Cardona. For instance, the term, "equity," is found over 70 times in the department's 2022-2026 strategic plan. The department lists diversity, equity, inclusion and meeting students' social-emotional needs as part of its agenda's six "focus areas."
Multiple press releases on the Education Department's website also reveal high-dollar figures awarded for DEI grants to school districts. Most recently, the agency announced the administration had awarded over $67 million through magnet schools program and fostering diverse schools grants.
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Staley said the report clearly shows how the Biden administration has been "incentivizing" far-left ideologies in US schools rather than "rigorous, proven methods of instruction," to the detriment of 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 said. "This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education, instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI."
Michele Exner, Senior Advisor at Parents Defending Education, also characterized the spending as wasteful when students are already failing to meet academic standards.
"Over one billion dollars squandered on progressive pet projects all while American students’ academic performance continues to plummet. 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. 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 said.
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Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates nearly one-third of U.S. public schoolchildren were behind grade level at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
The Department of Education did not return a request for comment.
President-elect Trump has pledged to abolish the Education Department when he returns to office and cut down on wasteful spending in the federal government.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory board, recently signaled their approval for dismantling the Education Department.
Legal experts say Trump will likely need approval from Congress to enact this plan, however.
Fox News' Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
