The Ministry of Justice (DOJ) awarded more than $100 million in grants to promote restorative justice and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures during the Biden administration, according to a conservative watchdog.
Parents Defending Education (PDE) published a report on Thursday, which revealed that from 2021 to 2024, millions of dollars were spent in federal funding in 36 states and 946 K-12 school districts, serving more than three million students to promote restorative justice practices, social emotional learning and DEI in the classroom with many projects aimed at improving the school climate for specific demographic groups, such as LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and Colored).
Ministry of Justice The program STOP violence at school provides grant money to nonprofit organizations, school districts, and city and state governments in an effort to “increase school safety by implementing solutions that will improve school climate.” But PDE argues that DOJ actually aims to replace exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and social emotional learning (SEL).
Social emotional learning is touted as a way of teaching students social skills to support their mental health and emotional well-being, but has been criticized as a way of implementing controversial topics such as Critical race theory and gender theory. As a result, it has become a point of contention among parents, teachers and politicians who argue for a strong academic emphasis in school and against classroom discussions that they believe should be left to parents to decide at home.
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The Department of Justice has spent over $100 million on ‘restorative justice,’ DEI measures for students. (iStock)
PDE describes exclusionary discipline as a process that removes the disruptor from the classroom, allowing the rest of the class to continue learning. Restorative practices, in contrast, often disrupt instruction for multiple students, as both the perpetrator(s) and victim(s) of the conflict are brought together to talk about what happened and “repair the damage,” according to the PDE.
The report divides grants into four categories: general, DEI, consulting/certification, and employment. For example, consultants hired by the DOJ were intended to “educate students or staff about [a] changing school climate” and promote concepts such as critical race theory, critical gender theory and queer theory, according to PDE’s analysis. More than $10 million has been allocated to hire new administrators for DEI roles like “facilitators of restorative justice”.
External organizations brought in to train students and staff on the proposed course include CASELthe International Institute for Restorative Practices, Second stepand Brave conversations about race.
Second graders hold their heads as they talk about “thoughts” and how they compare to “feelings” and resulting “actions” at Paw Paw Elementary School. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine)
“Words matter, and this report highlights how the Biden administration chose to deliberately hijack the school safety program to fund its own pet programs,” said Nicole Neily, president and founder of PDE. Fox News Digital in the statement.
“It’s hard to imagine that ‘school climate’ would ever be improved by creating racially segregated programs or hiring teachers based on skin color—if anything, these programs only lead to more hostility and tension among students.”
Notable examples of grants awarded include 2 million dollars from DOJ for “creating safe learning environments that incorporate anti-racism and anti-oppression practices” at the Minnesota Department of Education, $1,853,070 assigned Bowling Green State University to develop a student curriculum on mental health in rural and poor counties, which includes activities such as “mindful meditation, yoga and knitting,” $1,785,773 to Penn State University to reduce cyberbullying in Pennsylvania K-12 high schools, providing an opportunity “to meaningfully advance equity in violence prevention for communities that are historically underserved, marginalized, affected by inequality, and disproportionately affected by crime, violence, and victimization (People of Color (POC), women, people with disability and the LGBTQIA+ community).”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Neily said the award program is intended to “recognize, respond quickly and prevent acts of violence.” That, she said, is why it’s “so infuriating that projects like knitting circles have been given the go-ahead.”
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Ministry of Justice (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Other examples include a associate program between Temple University and the School District of Philadelphia, awarding $1,688,668 in an effort to prevent violence by teaching at-risk youth about “community policing, trauma-informed conflict with an emphasis on racial/historical and intergenerational trauma, the impact of social media on conflict and conflict escalation and management, anti-bias education, restorative practices.”
A million dollars is approved for Reach Out West End in Upland, California to fund a school safety improvement project in the Jurupa Valley Unified School District with content “on LGBTQIA+ issues aligned with SB 857, mental/behavioral health, substance use prevention and/or conflict mediation.” More $1,000,000 is given in Ocean County, New Jersey to “reduce the acceptability of bullying, harassment and all forms of violence.”
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It was almost a million dollars assigned Milwaukee Public School Board to “promote racial equity” through activities such as “racial equity seminars” and student-led focus groups “to remove institutionalized barriers and promote an inclusive school climate,” according to the DOJ’s announcement of the grant .
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
