The Department of Education will not renew $1 billion in mental health funding for schools, citing concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the contracts. <\/p>\n
The funding came from a bipartisan gun violence bill signed by former President Biden that gave schools the money to hire mental health workers and counselors for students. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese grants are intended to improve American students\u2019 mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses. Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,\u201d said Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe it to American families to ensure that tax-payer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students’ mental health,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The news was first reported by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, on the social platform X, including excerpts of the grant documents, which list goals to hire a certain number of minority and diverse counselors for schools. <\/p>\n
Rufo alleged the grants \u201cwere being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination. No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.\u201d <\/p>\n