A new investigation by the organization Parents Defending Education reviewing grants awarded under the Biden-Harris administration shows that the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has funded more than $1 billion worth of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in U.S. schools, universities, and nonprofits.
Parents Defending Education reviewed education grants dating back to 2021 through earlier this month and found that the DOE awarded a total of $1,002,522,304.81 in grants that funded DEI initiatives in 296 school districts across 42 states and Washington D.C.
The organization divided each type of DEI-based grant awarded by the DOE into three categories – grants that funded DEI or race-based recruiting, training, and hiring practices; grants that funded general DEI programming and trainings, discipline including restorative practices, and youth activism; and grants that funded DEI-based mental health training programs and Social Emotional Learning trainings and programming.
The recipient of the largest DEI-based grant identified in Parents Defending Education’s review of DOE funding was Duke University in North Carolina, which was awarded $49,837,443 in funds to create a program to help “schools in communities most impacted by systemic racism and generational poverty…grapple with various disparities, from food insecurity to mental health affliction to chronic disease.”
Meanwhile in Connecticut, the nonprofit organization Recentering Race & Equity in Education Inc. – an organization focused on “advancing equity and racial justice” was awarded a DEI-based grant identified by Parents Defending Education worth just $99,992.
Tennessee, a state run by a Republican supermajority which has floated the idea of rejecting federal education funds, was among the states in which schools received DEI-based grant funding.
Approximately $36 million went towards DEI-based grants across the following schools in the Volunteer State:
- Hamilton County Department of Education – $492,672
- LEAD Public Schools – $12,209,397
- National Institute for Excellence in Teaching – $12,327,028
- University of Memphis – $398,850
- Vanderbilt University – $11,869,961
Five recipients in Ohio were also awarded approximately $17 million in DEI-based grant funds:
- Beaver Creek Schools – $596,255
- Cleveland State University – $2,276,524
- Educational Service Center of Northwest Ohio – $8,957,809
- The Ohio State University – $947,431
- Preschool Promise – $4,000,000
In Georgia, approximately $21 million went towards DEI-based grants across the following schools and nonprofits:
- Bibb County School District – $2,569,674
- DeKalb County School District – $677,673
- Dougherty County School District – $2,999,971
- Fulton County Board of Education – $470,223
- Georgia State University Research Foundation – $9,580,752
- Gwinnett County Public Schools – $2,453,647
- Kennesaw State University – $707,645
- Martin Luther King Sr Community Resources Collaborative, Inc. – $3,997,320
Only three entities in Arizona were found to have been awarded DEI-based funds, however, the combined total for the three grants was more than $28 million:
- Academy of Mathematics and Science South, Inc – $768,240
- Maricopa County Education Service Agency – $11,232,951
- National Institute for Excellence in Teaching – $16,414,004
In Virginia, a relatively modest $10 million went to fund DEI-based initiatives across five school systems:
- American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences – $1,388,798
- American Institutes for Research – $3,935,583
- Campbell County Public Schools – $346,689
- Fairfax County Public Schools – $2,351,965
- Virginia Community College System Office – $1,069,175
Parents Defending Education estimates that the number of K-12 students impacted by the DOE’s DEI-based grants is at least 6,766,158.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
