EXCLUSIVE - A new report from Parents Defending Education alleges that since 2021, the Department of Education has awarded over $200 million to forty-eight universities injecting DEI content into counseling courses that include topics on antiracism, microaggressions, white privilege, and whiteness.
"The federal government spends billions of dollars on mental health initiatives each year - but it's imperative to investigate how counselors and social workers are trained, because some practitioners may do more harm than good," Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Fox News Digital. "As the Trump administration looks to eradicate DEI from American institutions, these education and training programs merit close scrutiny, as do the professional associations overseeing such work."
While Parents Defending Education points out that the report is not exhaustive and will be updated over time, it highlights that the programs, syllabi, course textbooks, or course descriptions surveyed contained the word "microaggressions" 20 times, "oppression" mentioned 30 times, there were 47 mentions of "social justice activism/advocacy," "privilege/white privilege," was mentioned 35 times, there were 34 mentions of "white racial identity," and "whiteness" was cited 15 times.
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It highlights numerous instances of DEI programming at public universities.
A 2021 course from the University of Florida, Multicultural Counseling, made students view video clips of former Communist Party member and fugitive from the FBI Angela Davis, as well as read Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack."
The University of Northern Colorado's Understanding and Counseling Diverse Populations entails the reading of Davis' "Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement" and discusses topics such as "decolonizing counseling," "ableism & sizeism," "cisheteronormativity," and "whiteness."
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Cisheteronormativity is a belief that everyone is cisgender, identifying with the gender that they were born with.
Another program highlighted in the report says that Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was given $4.7 million in grant funding from the Department of Education for its 'Recruit Educate Support Evaluate and Train' (RESET) program which seeks to draw "new recruits from diverse populations, including people of color and LGBTQ+ populations."
Vanderbilt University advertised a class called Counseling Diverse Populations, which was "a focus on microaggressions, oppression, privilege, queer theory, and an article from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) titled 'The Trump Effect in Schools.'"
A "counseling" course offered by National Louis University, Counseling and Human Development in a Multicultural Society, included "readings covering topics such as critical race theory, microaggressions, 'queer science,' and systemic oppression."
A $2.66 million grant awarded to Marquette University in Wisconsin allegedly used the funds to "support our ability to provide scholarships for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) who are committed to becoming school counselors."
Fox News Digital reached out to Marquette University for comment, and have yet to receive a response.
The report reads that "real concerns exist around the training school counselors receive in their master's program (a degree in school counseling is master's level only, requiring usually 60 credits)."
They add that "many of the universities receiving Department of Education grants are using the funds to advance diversity and equity in the counseling field."
The report points out that most accreditation for school counseling programs comes through the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs or CACREP, which on its website includes standards such as "theories and models of multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy." It also discusses "the effects of stereotypes, overt and covert discrimination, racism, power, oppression, privilege, marginalization, microaggressions, and violence on counselors and clients."
Last week, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT), and another to support school choice.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Department of Education spokesperson said, "Concluding that there is a violation of civil rights law requires examination on a case-by-case basis. However, based on what we have seen, programs and activities labeled 'social justice' and 'DEI' often abandon the very concept of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination that civil rights laws like Title VI and Title IX were enacted to protect and promote. This is both deeply disappointing and regressive. The Trump Administration is committed to returning to the promise of equal opportunity for all Americans."
