Transcript of Prioritizing DEI Over Education | 1.5.25

At least $1 billion has been spent on DEI in public schools since 2021.

In this episode, we speak with a parent activist about how those tax dollars are being spent and what to expect from the incoming Trump administration. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley, and this is a special edition of Morning Wire. Joining us to discuss the massive DEI spending Spree in K through 12 Public Schools is Nikki Neely, President and founder of Parents Defending Education. Nikki, thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

I wanted to bring you on to talk about this $1 billion of Department of Education spending that's on on over the past three or four years that's going to DEI, specifically. What do we know about this grant?

Yes, this was tons of grants over the four-year period of the Biden administration running the show. You'd think that the Department of Education would fund programs that actually to educate children, but frighteningly, this Department of Education under the Biden-Harris Administration has actually been funding programs that hurt students. The fact that there have been all these studies showing that DEI programs actually increase friction between people, start to lead to increase tussility between groups is mind boggling that our federal government has literally been lighting money on fire. And so the Department of Education has not been making up learning loss. They have actually been making things worse for American children. So it's a real slap in the face.

Now, put in context this $1 billion Is this a drop in the bucket for what the Department of Education normally spends, or is this a pretty significant line item?

It's pretty significant. I mean, the past couple of years have been a little bit of an anomaly because we have the post-COVID money that went out. But otherwise, the Department of Education's annual budget is in the $80 billion a year. And so the fact that over the course of four years, they were giving out approximately $250 million a year just to these programs that we identified. I mean, let's bear in mind, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg. So it is a nontrivial amount. And let's Just remember, this is also at a time when schools were closed on Joe Biden's watch. Even before COVID, I mean, honestly, American school children were not doing very well. Our achievement, our proficiency levels were not great to start with. Every single dollar that goes through that department should be going towards teaching children how to learn to read and write and do math, not going to DEI pet projects that make individuals hate each other.

Now, I'm reviewing some of the larger line items in your report. I see we have about half a billion dollars going diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring. Then we have diversity, equity, and inclusion programming that's getting 340 million. Then we also have diversity, equity, and inclusion-based mental health/social emotional learning, and that got 169 million. What is this social emotional learning component?

Social emotional learning is something that has been around for decades, and it really is, I mean, essentially interpersonal relationships. We want kids to be nice to each other. Of Of course, we want children to be nice to each other. But what we have seen over the past decade, and definitely under the Obama administration and the Biden administration, is a hijacking of this program. The Trojan horse, through which all of the CRT stuff, the gender things are getting in, because it encourages students to view themselves and others through these lens of immutable characteristics. It's what's called transformative SEO, which is let's change how children think about the world. It makes them perceive these racial and gender and ethnic categories categories and to treat people differently based on those categories. This in and of itself is a real problem because, again, it's not helping kids to learn because their heads are screwed unright. It's teaching them to see enemies and hatred where it didn't exist to start with.

Now, another line item I'm seeing is from Philadelphia Public Schools, which people who follow education know they are really struggling. They've received almost four million for restorative justice. That was modeled after Oakland Unified School district, which, by the way, also having a hard time. Can you explain what restorative justice is and why that's a red flag?

Absolutely. Restorative justice is the iteration in schools of let's break the school to prison pipeline. As I know your listeners know, that in and of itself is a falsehood. But the idea of restorative justice is rather than punishing and penalizing students that are misbehaving, they're acting out, let's bring them together. Let's come up with some accommodation where a victim and an aggressor can talk through their issues. This is essentially going to the principal's office and singing Kumbaya. As we have seen violent incidents in school over the past couple of years go off the charts, this very clearly is not working. To force students to be in a situation where their aggressor, their bully, knows that they have to talk, but that the bully will face no consequences means that bad actors know that they're going to get off the hook. They're not disincentivized from stopping that behavior. It puts victims, frankly, in a very, very delicate situation, because why would you make a complaint if you know that you're going to have to sit across the table from somebody, say, I accept your apology, and then just look forward to getting punched in the face again?

It's been an unmitigated failure. It's one of the reasons that teachers right now are being put in so much danger, because, again, these children that are acting out that are picking fights, know that they won't face any consequences. They won't be expelled. They won't be suspended. That's why the behavior is persisting and getting worse in many places.

Now, another item that I picked out here, we have a Michigan school district that spent over $38,000 in one day for an equity consultant. Is that standard pricing for that program? If so, how common is this?

Frightingly, it is common everywhere. For the past several years, Parents Defending Education has found, we hundreds of districts at this point that have employed equity consultants that came in in the wake of George Floyd offering equity audits of districts. And surprise, surprise, pretty much 100% of the time they'd say, Guess what? Your district's racist. The solution is, hire us in perpetuity, and it'll make you a little bit less evil. We have seen an explosion in the number of consulting firms that have gone in to do this DEI work. I think that amount of money is about what we have seen from a lot of other districts. But is it actually helping that student body, helping those children learn Is it making the district any better off? I would argue across the board, 100% of the time, absolutely not. It has just made divisions worse. That money is better spent in the classrooms, addressing problems for children who need to make up the loss from when schools were closed.

Have we seen a decline in the number of schools that are hiring these types of equity consultants? I know a couple of years ago, there was a lot of outcry and parents going to school board meetings. We haven't heard as much about that over the past, say, six months to a year. Has it persisted and just the zeitgeist has moved on, or are we actually seeing a decrease?

We are seeing a decrease, and I think it is because of a couple of factors. Right after COVID, districts were awash in money because of the COVID relief money that went out. There were $160 billion that went to school districts across the country. In many cases, more money than they knew what to do with, and many districts have still not spent it. And so with them being a wash in federal funds, they were hiring these consultants. That money ran out in September 2024. And so some districts have asked for waivers, but for the most part, the gravy train has ended. And so districts that felt that they could shower cash on pet projects are now being forced to make very tough decisions. And also, just over the past three or four years, unsurprisingly, as American parents have become disenchanted with what the public schools have offered, they have started homeschooling. People have gone to private schools. And so there are just fewer buts in seats in general, and public schools get money on a per-pupal basis. And so the fact that there is less money, there are less students means that there is less room for them to waste on programs like this.

There has been a decline in that. There is certainly going to need to be a lot of cleanup from the Trump administration to make sure that finite funding is not being spent on garbage programs like this going forward, but we are starting to see a market decline, and I think that's a good thing for the American people.

Now, you brought up the incoming Trump administration. What do we know about his new appointee for the Department of Education?

Linda McMahon is an excellent choice, and we're really excited about her. The parents we've spoken to are excited. I think what's terrific about Linda is that she brings nontraditional experience to this role. I mean, let's remember, this is the smallest federal agency, but it is still 4,400 employees and a budget of approximately, when we're not in COVID funding in the $80 billion range, which is big. It's not Pentagon big, but it's still monstrous. And she has that business and executive experience. And I think you need to both rein in employees that are misbehaving, of which there are many in the Department of Education. As well as, as President Trump has alluded to, his interest in winding down the Department, as a business leader, she knows how to value assets and to execute something like that. And so I think her experience really dovetails very well. The fact that we have for decades put policy people at the heads of some of these cabinet agencies and watch them being run into the ground so that it's really time for someone who knows how to manage, who knows how to look at big dollar amounts, make sure the programs are delivering.

And I think the most exciting thing about the Trump administration and Linda McMahon, is that they actually know who their customers are. They know that their customers are American families and students, as opposed to how the Biden administration and the Obama administration, their audience and their customers, first and foremost, were the teachers unions and education activists. And It's time for a new chapter in American history, and I can't wait for Linda McMahon to be the one who gets us there.

Now, Trump's first Education Secretary, Betsey DeVoss, was very focused on charter schools. Is Linda McMahon also very pro-charter, or is she primarily tasked with cutting down the department?

She is both a supporter of charter schools as well as of career and technical education. Again, she has employed thousands of people over the course of her career, and you and I both know you don't need a Yale PhD to staff every position in Corporation. And so her understanding of what the American workforce needs, I think, is really exciting. So I know that she will be and has been supportive of school choice, of charter schools. But someone who has a big picture look at what the American workforce needs versus what American business owners are looking for, I think it's terrific. The fact that she ran the small business administration, that's very close to people who are coming out of school, and they just want to run into an apprentice program. They don't necessarily want to go get a four-year college degree and have $400,000 in student debt. So I think she is listening to people and is not just governing from on high, listening to people like Randy Weingarten. Linda McMahon is actually listening to American parents, and she had served on the Connecticut Board of Education as well. She has that state education agency experience, which is critical in this role.

Well, that will be a welcome change for a lot of parents. Nikki, thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me.

That was Nikki Neely, President and founder of Parents Defending Education. This has been a special edition of MorningWire.