$8.3 Million for USAID Education on “Equity and Inclusion” Overseas

§ 01 / The Programs

American Education Equity Frameworks, Exported to Developing Countries That Didn’t Ask for Them.

USAID’s global education portfolio under the Biden administration incorporated “equity and inclusion” as crosscutting themes across its programming — embedded into curriculum reform, teacher training, and school governance programs in developing countries. The $8.3 million specifically flagged by DOGE represents programs where equity and inclusion were the primary programmatic focus, rather than a design element of broader education programs.

USAID’s 2021 Education Policy explicitly centered “equity and inclusion” — framed through American DEI terminology — as a strategic priority. The practical implementation ranged from girl-child education access programs (which have decades of evidence supporting them) to identity-based curriculum reform that embedded American frameworks for systemic oppression and structural equity into foreign school systems. These are categorically different activities that received the same programmatic label.

The Same Conflation, Again

Ensuring that girls can attend school, that children with disabilities have access to education, and that ethnic minority children are not excluded from classrooms — these are equality goals with measurable outcomes and bipartisan historical support in American foreign assistance. “Equity and inclusion” as defined by American DEI frameworks — centering identity, examining structural privilege, promoting “equity” outcomes over equal access — is a different ideological project. USAID’s Biden-era education programs embedded both under the same label. DOGE flagged the label. The underlying programs ranged from evidence-based to ideological, and the review did not distinguish between them.

§ 02 / The Bottom Line

What This Means

$8.3 million in education programs that ranged from legitimate equal-access work (girl-child education, disability inclusion) to DEI-ideological curriculum reform in developing countries. All flagged under the same “equity and inclusion” label. All suspended January 20, 2025 under EO 14169 and EO 14173 without distinguishing which programs had development evidence behind them and which reflected domestic political priorities.

Sources · 10 Citations