Trump’s Department of Education Halts $600 Million in Funding for ‘Divisive’ School Programs
The Department of Education is taking significant steps to dismantle the influence of ideological programs in schools, recently eliminating nearly $1 billion in funding linked to DEI initiatives.
On Monday, the department revealed that over $600 million in grants had been revoked, stating that these funds were being used to “train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies,” according to a news release from the Department of Education.
“Training materials included inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); social justice activism; ‘anti-racism’; and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy,” the statement outlined.
Some of these grants were allocated toward “teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.” Additionally, funds supported workshops focused on subjects like “Building Cultural Competence,” “Dismantling Racial Bias,” and “Centering Equity in the Classroom.”
The release also highlighted how certain grant-funded activities emphasized systemic oppression and inequity, promoting “understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning instruction, relationship building, discipline, and assessment.”
Rather than prioritizing the recruitment of the most qualified educators, the department’s statement argued that “[m]any of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.”
This decision follows the department’s move to cancel 10 contracts amounting to $336 million, which, according to another department release, had placed more focus on equity than actual education.
Funding to Regional Educational Laboratories was also discontinued after a review found “wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers.” The department noted that one such laboratory in the Midwest advocated for “equity audits” and encouraged discussions on equity within Ohio schools.
Additionally, grants to four Equity Assistance Centers were rescinded, as they had reportedly supported “divisive training in DEI, Critical Race Theory, and gender identity for state and local education agencies as well as school boards.”
This shift isn’t limited to K-12 institutions. The department has also instructed federally funded colleges that they “must cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and beyond,” per an official statement. Institutions have been given 14 days to comply.
“With this guidance, the Trump Administration is directing schools to end the use of racial preferences and race stereotypes in their programs and activities—a victory for justice, civil rights laws, and the Constitution,” stated Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
“For decades, schools have been operating on the pretext that selecting students for ‘diversity’ or similar euphemisms is not selecting them based on race. No longer. Students should be assessed according to merit, accomplishment, and character—not prejudged by the color of their skin. The Office for Civil Rights will enforce that commitment,” Trainor added.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.”
“Parents trust America’s schools to provide their children with a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand. In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight,” the order stated.
Trump further warned that “such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination. In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics.”
“These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity,” Trump added.
He concluded by stating that “imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority.”