A new report released by Parents Defending Education (PDE) has revealed that the Department of Education under the Biden administration spent over $100 million in grants to universities to train K-12 social workers in critical race theory (CRT), social justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The funds were distributed through programs like the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program, aimed at providing mental health support to students. However, the grants have drawn criticism for promoting ideological curricula and radical social justice concepts.
According to PDE’s report, 26 universities received the grants, with the funds being used to finance programs that require courses on controversial topics like racial capitalism, privilege, and oppression. These courses are shaping the next generation of social workers, many of whom will go on to work in K-12 schools. The grant recipients are teaching future social workers to view students through an ideological lens that prioritizes social justice activism over traditional mental health support.
“School social workers did not use to spend years marinating in highly ideological courses about privilege, oppression, racial capitalism, and white supremacy, but today, this is common practice in public and private universities,” said Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach for PDE. “While this is obviously disturbing, the fact that the U.S. Department of Education has been funding it since 2021 is a major red flag. How can a social worker help students become the best version of themselves if they see them as oppressors with unearned privilege?”
For example, the Master of Social Work program at Georgia State University, which received an $8 million grant in 2023 specifically for children’s mental health, requires students to take a class titled “Diversity and Social Justice.” The course covers subjects like “the impact of diversity and justice issues on social work practice.”
Similarly, the University of Alaska Anchorage received a $1.2 million grant in 2023 for programs that mandate a DEI course titled “Uses intersectionality as a framework for exploring multiple dimensions of difference and their relationship to oppression, privilege, and cultural humility.” According to its description, the course covers topics like “human rights,” social, economic, and racial “justice,” and the ways that oppression, “privilege,” and power manifest in social work practice.
Indiana University also received a $5.7 million grant in 2023 to support a five-year program that includes teaching anti-oppression, heterosexism, and white privilege in social work. These significant investments represent a continued push by the Biden administration to embed DEI and social justice principles at every educational level.
Critics argue that these programs, funded by taxpayer dollars, are less about providing the necessary tools for social workers to address the needs of students and more about advancing a political and ideological agenda. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), which represents many of the country’s social workers, has stated that one of its core values is advancing “social justice,” further solidifying the ideological turn the profession has taken in recent years.
While the Trump administration focuses on eliminating funding for divisive programs, the Biden administration moved in the opposite direction. A Biden-appointed judge recently ruled that federal grants to promote CRT, DEI, and social justice training in schools should be reinstated, further fueling concerns about the ideological direction of education and mental health services.
This comes at a time when many parents, educators, and community members are increasingly concerned about the growing political influence in public education and the workplace.
As more and more universities adopt these DEI-driven programs, the debate over the role of social work in schools and the influence of political ideologies on student welfare continues to escalate. Critics argue that these programs risk creating a generation of social workers who are more focused on ideological battles than on their primary responsibility: helping students navigate the challenges of growing up in an often complex and challenging world.
READ NEXT: Texas Teachers Admit Defiance of State’s CRT Teaching Ban
Social work. The one “”profession” whose only employer is Big, Bloated Government at all levels.