GrantED - Parents Defending Education

Exposing $1 Billion in Department of Education grant funding that has entrenched far-left ideologies in education

Total ED Grant Money Awarded (2021-present): $1,002,522,304.81

Total number of ED grants (2021-present): 229

Number of States: 42 plus Washington D.C.

Number of K-12 school districts*: 296

Number of K-12 students*: 6,766,158

*These numbers are based on available data and not exact. The number of 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.

We have broken the grants down into three buckets:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Hiring: $489,883,797.81
- This category includes DEI or race-based recruiting, training, and hiring practices. Read more about DEI Hiring in K-12 here.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Programming: $343,337,286
- This category includes general DEI programming and trainings, discipline including restorative practices, and youth activism.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Based Mental health/Social Emotional Learning (SEL): $169,301,221
- This category includes DEI based mental health training programs and SEL trainings and programming. Learn more about SEL here.

Some grants covered two or all of the above categories, in those cases, the grant was counted only towards the most dominant category.

Key Takeaways:

Multiple grants feature programming that advances race-based teacher recruiting, hiring, and training, including the use of race-based affinity groups.
Several grants were issued for youth activism programming widely used in far-left ethnic studies courses.
A $4,000,000 grant was given for a 3-week residential “culturally responsive” computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders.
Grants often feature Social, Emotional Learning (SEL) programming that uses curricula like Second Step and Harmony, as well as transformative SEL.
The University of Iowa received a grant award of $1,261,718 to train 40 elementary teachers to “enact equity-centered education” in partner K-12 districts.
The University of Missouri – St. Louis was awarded a $306,209 grant to train school counselors in Trauma-Informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL).
The School District of Philadelphia was given $3,973,175 for its restorative justice program that is modeled after Oakland Unified School District’s (CA), and a program advisor is a far-left activist and former Communist Party USA member.
A Michigan school district spent over $38,000 on an equity consultant for a one-day professional development and copies of their book.

From 2021 to the present, the Department of Education (ED) awarded to universities, school districts, and nonprofits 162 grants totaling $1,002,522,304.81. This report only captures grants that specifically included diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), restorative practices, and/or youth activism as part of the programming.

The grant total incorporates both awarded (committed) and disbursed dollars, as most of the grant money is distributed a period of several years.

In vetting the ED grants, we took into account that some of the grants used DEI buzzwords to appease the reviewers, so it is possible that some grants that would appear to fit the mold were left out of the report —it is likely this total can and will be higher.

The examples below provide a snapshot of approved grants and how the money was used. The small sample set includes a K-12 district hiring an equity consultant for a one day keynote address at a cost of $19,500, and purchasing copies of the consultant’s book for $19,250.

Other grants include training school counselors in trauma-informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL), race-based teacher affinity groups, youth activism, and racial equity focused restorative practices advised by a far-left activist.

GRANT RECIPIENT EXAMPLES

Montgomery County Schools (NC): $21,508,841

In 2023, Montgomery County Schools was awarded a grant of $21,508,841 for a program called Teacher and Principal Effectiveness Acceleration in Montgomery (TEAM). In order to improve student achievement, the district states that it will provide professional learning to its staff such as a “monthly Teaching-In Color PD, designed to build teachers and school leaders’ ability to support diverse students through equitable instructional and disciplinary practices to increase student achievement and decrease incidences of inequitable disciplinary practices.”

Additionally, as part of the district’s “Diversity and Inclusion Plan,” it established race-based Teacher Affinity Groups (TAG) for “Black and Hispanic teachers who meet monthly to discuss mutual concerns and provide support for one another.”

Ypsilanti Community Schools (MI): $15,524,948

Ypsilanti Community Schools (MI) received a total commitment of $15,524,948 in grant funding from the Department of Education for its SEEK: Supporting Educator Excellence & Knowledge program. In 2024, the district spent $19,500 on a consultant for a one-day professional development focused on “culturally responsive” teaching. The district also spent an additional $19,250 to purchase copies of the consultant’s book.

In January 2023, the board approved the use of SEEK grant funding to purchase a one year, $27,500 subscription for a “web based platform that enhances the teacher and administrator evaluation system.”

Yspilanti Schools IE Observation Renewal 23-24 Download

In the spring of 2023, the school board approved a one year contract for $149,775 for a scheduling software and attendance at the organization’s national conference.

On February 26, 2024, the school board approved the use of SEEK program funds for a $40,896 contract for a “robotics and software tool” to assist “teachers in reflecting on their practice” and to “level-up their ability to leverage Swivl Solutions to deepen their reflection and coaching practices.”

Swivl Quote Ypsilanti Community Schools 02_12_24 (1)Download

At its July 8, 2024, board meeting, the district board members approved a professional development contract expenditure of $19,500 from the SEEK program for a one day “culturally responsive training.” The board also approved using $19,250 of SEEK funds to purchase the consultant’s book “Tangible Equity” for district staff.

MK Level Playing Field Institute (dba SMASH) (CA): $4,000,000

In 2023, the Department of Education awarded a $4,000,000 grant to MK Level Playing Field Institute for SMASH 3.0: Innovation in Programming Strategies that Promote Equity in Computer Science Pathways for Historically-Excluded Students. According to the grant abstract, the project prioritizes the selection of “student identities underrepresented in the computing field” which include “Black, Latine, Native, low-income, girls, non-binary.”

The 3-week summer residential program for high school students is a “culturally-responsive CS exposure program that prepares marginalized students to engage with a CS path” that includes “social emotional workshops” among its components.

Staff will be trained in, and use, culturally-responsive pedagogy to teach the curriculum. SMASH’s core value is “We Lead with Racial Justice and Reflect the Communities.”

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Regents of the University of California, U.C. San Diego (CA): $4,000,000

In 2022, the Regents of the University of California, U.C. San Diego received a grant award of $4,000,000 for a program titled The LISTEN (Listen and Inquiring with Students Through Engagement Networks) LAB. The grant application narrative states that the LISTEN LAB “uses Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) strategies to tackle the question of how to best increase student engagement” and “taking CASEL’s ‘transformative SEL‘ seriously, the LISTEN (Listen and Inquiring with Students Through Engagement Networks) LAB aims to directly engage high school youth from low-income, racial minoritized groups in YPAR to study and innovate on increasing school engagement.”

The application also states that the LISTEN LAB’s “YPAR methods will engage low-income and racial minority students to help unpack the reasons behind student disengagement” and will “work closely with teachers and provide them with professional development in YPAR methods to help educators re-engage these populations of students.”

According to the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an “innovative approach to positive youth and community/organization development that recognizes the important role youth can and should play in the research process” and “creates the space and facilitates the ability of youth to examine and address social issues within their own community or organization.” In other words, YPAR trains students to be youth activists.

Youth Participatory Action Research is often found in K-12 ethnic studies curriculums as a culminating unit where students apply information learned throughout the course in the form of community activism. This is evident in Stockton Unified School District’s ethnic studies course.

The Puget Sound Educational Service District has a resource page describing what Antiracist Social Emotional Learning is and what it matters. It can be viewed here.

The School District of Philadelphia (PA): $3,973,175

The School District of Philadelphia received a grant of $3,973,175 in 2022 for its Relationship First: Scaling up a multi-tiered schoolwide restorative approach in the School District of Philadelphia. The district Relationships First program is modeled after the work of Oakland Unified School District and Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY). The grant also lists RJOY founder and far-left activist Fania E Davis as a “project Advisor.”

The school district states that the Relationships First program is a “restorative justice-practices philosophy that emphasizes the importance of positive, authentic human connection and its link to both academic success and social-emotional learning.” In describing where it came from, the document says it is “based on the restorative justice MTSS model of Oakland Unified School District, coordinated by David Yusem and his team of RJ facilitators and supported by Fania Davis and her community organization, RJOY.”

In fact, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Restorative Justice Implementation Guide was co-written and co-developed by RJOY and Fania Davis. The guide includes a restorative justice circle activity to be used with students title “Circle 3: Exploring White Privilege.”

Read more about OUSD’s restorative justice program here.

Fania E Davis is the sister of far-left activist and 1960s radical Angela Davis, a former member of the Communist Party USA, and is the author of The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation.

The Curators of the University of Missouri on behalf of UMSL (MO): $306,289

The Curators of the University of Missouri on behalf of UMSL were awarded a $306,289 Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant from the Department of Education for its Partnership for Antiracist Counseling Training (PACT) program with Riverview Gardens School District (RGSD).

The abstract states that “PACT will place 64 counseling interns in 13 high-needs schools to provide Trauma-informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL) to address the mental health needs of 5,617 students in RGSD.”

An August 6, 2024, district Welcome Back Letter outlines RGSD “Social Emotional Mental Health Support” which includes information about PACT. The letter states that the program receives an “$800,000 grant each year for the next 3 years” and it will “provide counseling interns who will provide therapeutic services to scholars who fall in an at-risk category (substance abuse, SIT, LGBTQIA+, and traumatic community events).”