(José Niño, Headline USA) Parental rights organization Defending Ed published an investigation revealing that nearly 200 school districts and 30 state government entities spread across 42 states and Washington D.C. publicly promote curriculum materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC currently faces a federal wire fraud indictment. Prior to these charges, the organization became infamous for including mainstream conservative groups on its “hate map.” The Justice Department also opened a criminal investigation into claims the group directed funds to individuals tied to white supremacist movements and allegedly poured millions into efforts to influence Southern elections.
The SPLC’s educational initiative, formerly known as Teaching Tolerance, was rebranded as Learning for Justice in 2021 because “tolerance is not justice,” the organization explained. These materials have spread into “teacher professional development and trainings, classroom lessons, district-wide curriculums, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), social justice standards, and district antiracism and equity policies and resources,” the Defending Ed report states.
Just the News documented how certain school districts employ aggressive tactics to conceal curricula, psychological programs, and information about which adults interact with students. These same districts, however, openly advertise their partnerships with the SPLC.
Conservative states have not escaped this trend. The investigation discovered SPLC resources within education departments in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, and North Dakota. School board associations in Alaska and Oklahoma, along with the Kentucky principals association and Utah PTA, also distribute these materials.
The SPLC’s “hate map” designated groups including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, Defending Ed, multiple Moms for Liberty chapters, Alliance Defending Freedom, Gays Against Groomers, and the Family Research Council. The FRC’s placement on that map motivated a terrorist attack against its Washington headquarters in 2013.
“The content often pushes or reinforces far-left cultural and political ideologies such as left-wing activism, anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, gender ideology and queer theory, white privilege, white supremacy, whiteness, and transgenderism,” according to Defending Ed.
The SPLC’s Social Justice Standards shaped the National Sex Education Standards, now adopted by 41% of school districts. The American School Counselor Association’s “Student Standards” likewise identifies the Social Justice Standards among its primary influences.
Teaching Tolerance and Learning for Justice both receive explicit endorsement for fourth grade instruction in the congressionally chartered Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.
“To build a multiracial inclusive democracy requires educating for liberation and civic and political participation across the South and the nation,” Learning for Justice declares.
The investigation probably understates the SPLC’s full influence “due to a lack of public access to curriculums, lessons, and textbooks,” the report acknowledges. Individual teachers can weave this content into their own lessons, rendering the organization’s footprint harder to measure.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
