Thursday, February 20, 2025

Education Department Slashes $600 Million In Funding For ‘Social Justice Activism’ Teacher Training

The Federalist   

These training programs are designed to ensure that teachers obsess over race and gender as the top qualities upon which to judge others, and then eventually weave that thinking into curriculums, classroom discussion, and policies.

"The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday it cut over $600 million in grants spent on training teachers in “social justice activism,” critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology.

"The grants were used to fund institutions and nonprofits involved in training teachers on concepts like “anti-racism” and claims about white privilege and white supremacy. The grants also helped fund discriminatory staff recruiting strategies that targeted candidates based on their race.

" 'It’s hard to overstate how radical these teacher trainings are — we are talking about forcing teachers to talk about their race at work, asking educators to ‘take personal and institutional responsibility for systemic inequities,’ promoting abolitionist teaching practices and defining equity as equal outcomes,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for Parents Defending Education, said in a press release. “And not for nothing but all we see are declining outcomes for the students that these trainings purport to help most.”

"The Department of Education noted several of the trainings — meant for future classroom teachers — the grants funded, including “Requiring practitioners to take personal and institutional responsibility for systemic inequities (e.g., racism) and critically reassess their own practices,” and “Receiving professional development workshops and equity training on topics such as ‘Building Cultural Competence,’ ‘Dismantling Racial Bias’ and ‘Centering Equity in the Classroom.'”

"Other trainings were aimed at “building historical and sociopolitical understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning instruction relationship building discipline and assessment” and “acknowledging and responding to systemic forms of oppression and inequity, including racism, ableism, ‘gender-based’ discrimination, homophobia, and ageism.”

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