Nikki Neely, founder of Parents Defending Education, called the Biden administration's decision to spend more than $1 billion on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and training in America's schools “heartbreaking” and harmful to America's students.
“We are in a time where 40% of American students cannot read, and this is how the Biden-Harris administration has chosen to squander America's hard-earned taxpayer dollars. It is truly a slap in the face,” Neely said. Fox & Friends First” on Friday.
Researchers at Parents Defending Education looked at nearly four years of grants awarded by the Biden administration from 2021 to the present, and found that the Biden administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion grants for students and schools.
According to To the report$489,883,797 was spent on race-based employment grants; $343,337,286 is allocated for public DEI programming; $169,301,221 went to DEI-based mental health training and programming, for a total of $1,002,522,304.81 spent overall.
Biden's Education Department spent more than $1 billion on DEI grants: Report
The U.S. Department of Education has spent at least $1 billion on grants to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in recruiting, programming, and mental health training in U.S. schools since 2021, according to a new report. (Getty Images)
Examples included in the report include a $3,974,496 grant provided to School District of Philadelphia For the restorative justice program headed by a former member of the Communist Party USA; $4,000,000 grant for a 3-week “culturally responsive” computer science summer camp for 600 students in 11th and 12th grades; and a $38,000 grant to a Michigan school district for a one-day professional development training with a stock advisor, plus copies of the advisor's book.
Neely argued that DEI is harmful because it “pits people against each other” and labels people as either “oppressors” or “oppressors.”
She cited A Recent study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Rutgers University, which found that there were significant increases in hostility and punitive attitudes among participants who were exposed to DEI pedagogy.
“So these things hurt American children, they don't help anyone. They hurt them,” she said. Fox News.
Data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that nearly one-third of public school children in the United States were behind grade level at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. (Istock)
Texas, Florida, and several other states have introduced or passed legislation Ban DEI in higher education. Neely said universities should realize that DEI is on the way out with the incoming Republican administration.
“These programs must be completely eliminated,” she predicted. “I believe we will make major cleanup efforts over the next four years.”
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Elon Musk, co-chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on December 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C.; Vivek Ramaswamy, Chairman and Co-Founder of Strive Asset Management, arrives to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, December 5, 2024. (Left: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Right: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to help lead his next advisory board To reduce government wastealso responded to the report on X.
“This is worse than just extravagance,” Ramaswamy said on X.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have expressed their support for dissolving the entire Department of Education, an idea that Trump promoted during his presidential campaign. Linda McMahon He was nominated to lead the department in 2025 by Trump.
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