Education Watchdog Warns SPLC Pushes Far-Left Content into K-12 Classrooms amid Fraud Charges

As the Southern Poverty Law Center faces federal fraud charges, the education watchdog Defending Education warns that the liberal activist group continues to integrate its far-left content and materials into classrooms as early as kindergarten in more than 40 states across the U.S.

Nicole Neily, president of Defending Education—which the SPLC once labeled an extremist group—told Fox News Digital that unbeknownst to parents, the Southern Poverty Law Center has been poisoning pupils' minds around the country for years with its toxic curriculum.

Defending Education published a new exposé detailing how the SPLC's education program Learning for Justice, formerly Teaching Tolerance, has been integrated into K-12 lesson plans and materials in 169 school districts in 42 states, plus Washington, D.C. The watchdog said the program reinforces far-left cultural and political ideologies, including anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, gender ideology and queer theory, white privilege, white supremacy, whiteness, and transgenderism.

Neily said SPLC's integration in schools has caused issues such as queer theory, white privilege, and anti-racism to supplant traditional coursework in history, social studies, and other core classes. That approach, she said, teaches children to view themselves and others through the lens of identity politics, and that America is forever stained by its original sin.

The materials intentionally sow division and mistrust between students at a formative stage of their development, Neily said. It is deeply disappointing that administrators and educators believe this is an appropriate use of finite classroom time and resources.

The SPLC did not respond to requests for comment on Defending Education's report.

The report shows SPLC's website and documents on school district webpages, in teacher professional development and trainings, classroom lessons, district-wide curricula, Social Emotional Learning, social justice standards, and district antiracism and equity policies and resources.

SPLC's Learning for Justice program, which the report says focuses on education for liberation, encourages implementation of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes in the domains of identity, diversity, justice, and action.

Under the action category, students are encouraged to commit to join with diverse people to plan and carry out collective action against exclusion, prejudice, and discrimination, and to be thoughtful and creative in actions to achieve goals.

Defending Education said the New York State Education Department added equity revisions to its NY Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks that aligned them with SPLC's social justice standards.

The report also notes that the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian lists Learning for Justice as a recommended resource in certain lesson materials. It points to guidance and curriculum resources from the California Department of Education and Illinois State Board of Education, as well as Chicago Public Schools, that include or reference the standards.

Learning for Justice materials appear in curriculum and lesson plans for younger students in several districts. Examples include Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts integrating the Social Justice Standards into junior kindergarten through fifth-grade physical education; Yonkers Public Schools in New York using the standards in pre-kindergarten project-based learning units; and Princeton Public Schools in New Jersey updating its early childhood curriculum using the framework.

Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education, said the amount of influence the SPLC's programming and content has had on district policies, learning standards, curriculums, and lessons is a real concern for families who value a bias-free learning environment.

No organization that labels concerned parents as extremists and members of hate groups should have its biased content used in K-12 schools, Staley said. District leaders should end the use of this organization's materials and ideas.

The Alabama-based SPLC, which describes itself as a beacon of hope for fighting white supremacy, was indicted late last month on federal fraud charges from a years-long alleged covert paid informant program. Justice Department officials said it allocated millions of dollars in donations to informants affiliated with or closely tied to white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

The 11-count indictment accuses the SPLC of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealed money laundering. The SPLC sent some $3 million to its paid informants between 2014 and 2023, including people affiliated with the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the Aryan Nations-linked Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, among others.

SPLC has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. A spokesperson defended its work monitoring white supremacist groups and other violent extremist organizations—including via the paid informant program—saying it has saved lives.