DEI Education Spending: Justice Department Overview
The Biden administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) has allocated significant funding towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in K-12 schools. Parents Defending Education (PDE) analyzed grants awarded by DOJ to school districts over the last four years. Since 2021, the department has distributed 102 grants which were used on the three subjects, spanning 946 school districts, according to the group's findings. This investment has sparked debate, with some arguing it enhances school climate and safety, while others contend it diverts resources from more effective safety measures and promotes divisive concepts.
DOJ's Investment in DEI Initiatives
A parents' rights group found that the Biden administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) has allocated over $100 million in grants to restorative justice, social emotional learning and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in K-12 schools. Parents Defending Education (PDE) analyzed grants awarded by DOJ to school districts over the last four years. The Department of Justice (DOJ) spent over $100 million over the last four years on education programs related to restorative justice, social emotional learning and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to a new report. The report found the DOJ awarded and distributed $100,113,942 in grants to over 900 school districts across 36 states between 2021 and 2024. According to the report, which was first reported by the Daily Wire. Since 2021, the department has distributed 102 grants which were used on the three subjects, spanning 946 school districts, according to the group's findings.
The funds at question were awarded through DOJ's STOP School Violence Program, PDE said. The program aims to improve school safety by providing students and school staff members with "the tools they need to recognize, respond quickly to, and prevent acts of violence," according to DOJ. The program also notes a desire to strengthen school safety by "implementing solutions that will improve school climate."
Breakdown of Grant Allocations
A total of 47 grants, equaling $45,207,178, "broadly" mentioned restorative practices or social emotional learning, the report shows. Meanwhile, 30 grants, representing $32,084,529, included either "project proposals" discussing DEI or "explicitly" explained intentions to "improve outcomes for a specific demographic group," PDE said.
The report also shows 22 grants featured "project proposals" aimed at hiring consultants focused on "changing school climate," while 11 were designed for hiring new administrators, such as "a restorative justice facilitator." The two grant categories totaled $19,881,347 and $10,296,100 respectively, according to PDE. PDE noted in its report that some grants fell under multiple categories.
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According to the report, the DOJ spent $45,207,178 on "project proposals that broadly mention restorative practices or social emotional learning," $32,084,529 spent on "proposals that discuss diversity, equity, or inclusion or explicitly explain how the project is intended to improve outcomes for a specific demographic group" and $19,881,347 spent on certification for consultants that "often promote divisive concepts such as critical race theory, critical gender theory and queer theory." Another $10,296,100 was spent on proposals on hiring new administrators, including a "restorative justice facilitator."
Specific Examples of Grant Usage
Some highlights included nearly $2 million being given to the Minnesota Department of Education to "create safe learning environments where practices of anti-racism and anti-oppression are embedded" and nearly $1 million given to New Jersey’s Ocean County to reduce violence while equating "teasing" to "oppression and all forms of violence."
PDE highlighted several specific grants and projects in its report. The program, which was granted $1,688,668, is aimed at violence prevention through teaching young people, among other things, "community policing," "anti-bias education" and "restorative practices," the report says.
Concerns Raised by Parents Defending Education
Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach for PDE, told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) in a statement schools became "less safe" as a result of the DOJ grants. "The DOJ claimed that the purpose of the grants was to increase school safety by implementing solutions that will improve school climate - but the opposite happened," Sanzi said. "Disruptions, chaos and violence increased, and schools became less safe."
The report also highlighted the DOJ’s STOP School Violence Program, which the group warned aimed to "improve school climate" by switching from disciplinary actions to "social emotional learning." "More often than not, when schools mention ‘improving school climate’ they mean replacing exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and social emotional learning," PDE wrote.
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It continued, "Exclusionary discipline removes the disruptor from the classroom, allowing the rest of the class to continue learning. Restorative practices, on the other hand, often disrupts class time for more students, as both the offender(s) and victim(s) in an incident are brought together to discuss what happened and ‘repair harm.’" The PDE clarified that the numbers were only based on available data with some counties with multiple grants being counted only once, saying the real number "is likely much higher."
"Although the Biden administration claimed they cared about 'student safety,' these grants highlight that at the end of the day, federal bureaucrats made a deliberate choice to prioritize ideology and pet projects over protecting American schoolchildren, using the tax dollars of hardworking citizens," PDE founder and president Nicole Neily told Fox News Digital.
Comparison to Department of Education Spending
Last month, PDE released a similar report that found the Department of Education was spending over $1 billion on grants advancing DEI in hiring, programming and mental health training in America's schools since 2021. 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.
DOJ's Stance on DEI and Federal Law
Like the Education Department’s blocked guidance, the Justice Department’s new memo warns that government officials could pull federal funding from institutions that don’t comply. The memo also takes aim at what it describes as “unlawful proxies” for race and sex. The memo also said failing to “maintain sex-separated athletic competitions and intimate spaces” could violate federal law. “Even if access is technically open to all, the identity-based focus creates a perception of segregation and may foster a hostile environment,” the memo stated.
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