Education

Left-Wing Program Spending Spree Helped Fuel ‘Explosive Growth’ In Education Dept’s Budget, Report Shows

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The Department of Education’s (ED) budget has been increasing substantially year over year with millions funneling into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and oversees education programs, a report releasing Thursday revealed.

ED spent more than $250 billion in 2024 alone, an “explosive growth” amounting to a 749% increase from 2000, according to an upcoming report from Open the Books. Meanwhile, millions of dollars in grants went towards pushing “racial equity” and gender ideology in schools, along with funding equitable schooling abroad.

American students have rapidly fallen behind in recent years, with test scores reaching some of the lowest levels ever recorded in the U.S. One-third of eighth graders failed to reach national reading assessment benchmarks in 2024, the largest percentage ever recorded, along with 40% of fourth grade students, the largest percentage since 2002.

A $1.3 million grant to Framingham State University in 2022 went towards “Remixing Textbooks Through an Equity-Focused Lens.” One new book was titled “‘Overweight’ Bodies, Real and Imagined,” which seeks to “decouple weight and health,” according to the report. Another book titled “Children, Families, Schools, and Communities” features the Genderbread Person, a cartoon image meant to teach young children about gender ideology and sexual attraction.

“All textbooks begin with a ‘land acknowledgement’ for ‘the painful history of genocide and forced removal from [Indigenous Peoples’] territory, and other atrocities connected with colonization,'” the Open the Books report reads. “The land acknowledgement is a part of the grant’s overall mission.”

Delsea Regional High School in New Jersey received $2.4 million in 2020 to fund a “Culturally Responsive Climate, Equity, and Discipline” program, Open the Books found. Another $1.6 million went to the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia in 2022 for a “Culturally- and Racial Equity-Sustaining (CARES) Classroom Assessment System.”

Ohio State University was given $475,000 in 2022 for a “Race, Inclusion, and Social Equity (RAISE) Initiative,” which aims to add “at least 50 tenure-track faculty members whose research can help to address racial and social disparities” in topics like “Climate, Race and Place” and “Racial Equity by Design,” according to the report.

The report also found at least $2.8 million from ED went towards Chinese education programs, including a $1.6 million grant to a real estate broker company. The grant aimed to “to help local educational agencies improve teaching and learning in high-poverty schools in particular for children failing, or most at-risk of failing, to meet challenging state academic achievement standards,” according to the report.

President Donald Trump has already set out to cut wasteful spending in the education department, canceling DEI grants and officially ordering the dismantling of the department entirely. Nearly half of the department’s staff was cut in early March and several of its programs, such as student loan oversight and special needs programs, are in the process of being moved to other departments.

Former President Joe Biden’s education plan included pouring millions of taxpayer funds into topics such as “LGBTQ inclusion” and “anti-racism and anti-oppression” into schools. Over $100 million worth of grants went to universities meant to train K-12 social workers in critical race theory, social justice and DEI.

The Department of Education did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.