The Trump administration has delivered a major blow to the education establishment’s ideological agenda by eliminating a $1 billion federal grant program that was quietly funneling taxpayer dollars into training left-wing activists under the cover of school-based mental health services.
The Department of Education announced it is ending and restructuring both the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program—initiatives originally billed as tools to support student well-being. However, under closer review, officials determined that the grants were being exploited to promote divisive ideologies such as Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and radical gender theory.
Instead of helping students in crisis, the funds were going to universities and institutions that used the money to push race-based hiring quotas, ideological re-education programs, and political activism cloaked as social work.
One glaring example cited by the administration involved Portland State University, which received over $1.1 million to expand its social work program with an explicit goal of training individuals to “dismantle systems of oppression” and pursue “racial, social, and economic justice”—language more fitting for a political manifesto than a mental health program.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madison Biedermann explained that the misuse of these programs was not just unethical—it was dangerous. “These were mental health grants in name only,” she said. “What was really happening was an effort to embed radical ideology in schools across the country, funded by taxpayers.”
The move has been applauded by education watchdogs and parent advocacy groups who have long warned that mental health funding was being weaponized to inject political content into classrooms. Nicki Neily, President of Parents Defending Education, praised the administration’s action, calling it a critical step in removing activist influence from public schools.
“This was never about helping kids,” Neily said. “It was about creating a pipeline of activist educators and counselors trained to divide, indoctrinate, and re-engineer the next generation.”
The Trump administration’s action sends a clear message: federal dollars will no longer be used to fund ideological training camps disguised as student support services. Instead, the Department of Education is now focused on ensuring that any future mental health funding directly benefits students—without political strings attached.
This move is part of a broader effort by the administration to root out left-wing influence in federal education policy, dismantle entrenched DEI bureaucracies, and restore academic institutions to their core mission of educating—not indoctrinating—America’s youth.
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