OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:36 PM – Friday, December 13, 2024
The watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE) shared a report detailing the more than $1 billion spent by the Department of Education on DEI-driven grants to public school districts, universities, and NGOs since 2021 under President Joe Biden.
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PDE reports that 162 grants supporting DEI, which refers to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” activities, focused on mental health training, educational programming, and recruiting.
The entire cost was $1,002,522,304.81. In addition, the group expressed that the number is “a modest estimate” and likely to be even higher, according to PDE.
“These numbers are based on available data and not exact. The number of districts and students is likely much higher. Some districts, such as Miami-Dade County Public Schools, is connected to multiple grants and is therefore only counted once in the numbers,” PDE noted in its report.
PDE broke down the DEI grant distribution:
- DEI Hiring: $489,883,797.81
- DEI Programming: $343,337,286
- DEI-Based Mental health/Social Emotional Learning (SEL): $169,301,221
“Some grants covered two or all of the above categories, in those cases, the grant was counted only towards the most dominant category,” PDE continued in its report.
The “School District of Philadelphia was given $3,973,175 for its restorative justice program that is modeled after Oakland Unified School District’s (Calif.), and a program advisor is a far-left activist and former Communist Party USA member.”
As of the end of the 2023–2024 school year, about one-third of K–12 children nationwide are reportedly falling behind their grade level, according to a September report published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
PDE describes itself as a “national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas.”
“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,” PDE researcher Rhyen Staley stated. “This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education, instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI.”
In lieu of departing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, President-elect Donald Trump has selected Linda McMahon to take on his role.
After two decades of improved learning was undone by school closures, which were supported by national teachers’ unions, federal bureaucrats seemingly sat on their hands while dragging their feet on schools reopening.
Cardona also immersed himself in culture wars and publicly clashed with conservative governors over curriculum regulations and parental rights.
“The [Education] Secretary is responsible for the overall direction, supervision, and coordination of all activities of the Department and is the principal adviser to the President on federal policies, programs, and activities related to education in the U.S.,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Overseeing a department of 4,000 federal bureaucrats who distribute funds, handle paperwork, gather data, and draft regulations is all part of the job. Given that the agency has a history of low morale and the fact that it has been accused of being too “chummy” with certain unions, it is clear that an outsider, McMahon, with a proven and successful track record in management is needed, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has argued.
Business experience and managerial skills may also be more important than ever in light of the somewhat recent FAFSA scandal. The new system was implemented last winter and it caused a number of challenges for both colleges and students, even costing students the financial aid that they’re entitled to.
“Congress directed the Department of Education to overhaul its federal student aid system. The goal was to streamline the application process by pulling students’ and parents’ financial information directly from the IRS and by reducing the number of application questions—from more than 100 to as few as 18 for some applicants,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Three failed departmental audits in a row later, and the growing necessity to restore student lending’s chaotic state following Biden’s efforts of unlawful college debt forgiveness, some people now compare the Department of Education to a megabank with a boutique policy shop.
Many have also argued that the department desperately needs to be cleaned up internally in general.
Before deciding on a new professional path, McMahon first obtained a teaching credential in college and contributed to the development of her family’s prosperous sports entertainment company. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education and as a trustee of Sacred Heart University for decades. McMahon has also led an effort to establish a more conservative education agenda as board chair of the America First Policy Institute, which will remove radical far-left ideologies from schools and give parents back decision-making authority. She supports training programs and high-quality educational opportunities that will enable millions of American students to find steady work.
“Her goal is more education, but you don’t want the government to be in the way of education. So with that framework, that’s how we’ll proceed,” stated Senator Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who met with her on Tuesday.
Budd is among a number of Republican officials who believe that McMahon has an advantage in navigating the bureaucracy of a federal agency currently running poorly run due to her previous experience managing the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
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