'Anti-racism' and knitting circles: Biden's DOJ wastes $100M on woke school programs, report says

The Biden administration's Department of Justice reportedly wasted more than $100 million on woke school initiatives.

A Thursday report from Parents Defending Education revealed that from 2021 to 2024, the DOJ granted $100,113,942 in grants to hundreds of school districts in 36 states to support programs promoting restorative justice, social-emotional learning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

'Federal bureaucrats made a deliberate choice to prioritize ideology and pet projects over protecting American schoolchildren.'

The report explained that the information was "based on available data and not exact," noting that the number of school districts that received funding was "likely much higher."

PDE estimated that the DOJ awarded over $45 million for promoting restorative practices or SEL; more than $32 million to support DEI initiatives; nearly $20 million to hire consultants who often promoted critical race theory, gender theory, and queer theory; and another $10 million for hiring new administrators for positions related to restorative justice, SEL, and DEI.

The report provided examples of specific programs the DOJ funded, including $2 million to "create safe learning environments where practices of anti-racism and anti-oppression are embedded," and nearly $2 million to develop mental health programs that included "mindfulness meditation, yoga, and knitting circles."

The report also noted the DOJ's STOP School Violence Program, which provides grants to support projects that "increase school safety by implementing solutions that will improve school climate."

"More often than not, when schools mention 'improving school climate,' they mean replacing exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and social emotional learning. Exclusionary discipline removes the disruptor from the classroom, allowing the rest of the class to continue learning. Restorative practices, on the other hand, often disrupts class time for more students, as both the offender(s) and victim(s) in an incident are brought together to discuss what happened and 'repair harm,'" the report read.

It added, "Social emotional learning (SEL) is more insidious than it may sound. While SEL was originally intended to teach children skills like self-awareness, self-management, and goal setting, the definitional shift to 'Transformative SEL' prioritizes equity and 'the collective' — it has become another avenue to bring DEI into the classroom."

PDE founder and president Nicole Neily told Fox News Digital, "Although the Biden administration claimed they cared about 'student safety,' these grants highlight that at the end of the day, federal bureaucrats made a deliberate choice to prioritize ideology and pet projects over protecting American schoolchildren, using the tax dollars of hardworking citizens."

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!