SPLC’s ‘Learning for Justice’ Curriculum Reached 100 Teacher-Training Colleges in 38 States, New Report Finds
Most Programs Never Told Parents — or Their Own Students.
A watchdog investigation published July 10, 2026 by Defending Education, a parental-rights education nonprofit, examined 100 Colleges of Education across 38 states and Washington, D.C. and found the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Social Justice Standards” embedded in required teacher-training coursework — often, the report says, without the schools disclosing it. “Few COEs outwardly acknowledge their use of SPLC materials,” the report states; “instead, many COEs hide their usage and promotion behind faculty login pages.”
The report lands the same week the Southern Poverty Law Center pleaded not guilty to an 11-count federal fraud indictment — a case alleging the nonprofit funneled millions of dollars to informants tied to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups through shell accounts. It also lands atop a separate watchdog finding that SPLC-linked curriculum has drawn nearly $4 million in direct and indirect taxpayer support, even as SPLC itself sits on an endowment north of $738 million.
This page traces the report’s findings university by university, the federal grants that helped fund the pipeline, the parallel K-12 tracker showing where the same materials landed in classrooms, and the pending federal case against the organization whose materials sit at the center of all of it. Defending Education has itself been labeled “extremist” by SPLC — a fact worth weighing alongside its findings, which this page sources directly to the report and cross-references against public grant records.
- 100 colleges — of education across 38 states plus D.C. examined in Defending Education's report, finding SPLC materials embedded in required coursework · Source: Defending Education
- $3.3 million — U.S. Department of Education grant to Claremont Graduate University (2019) that commits fellows to SPLC's 'Social Justice Standards from Teaching Tolerance' · Source: Defending Education; Fox News
- 225 districts — now carry SPLC's K-12 'Learning for Justice' materials, up from 169 at the tracker's May 2026 launch, across 42-43 states and roughly 30 state education agencies · Source: Defending Education; The Daily Signal
- $3.85 million — in taxpayer-backed support tied to SPLC curriculum, per OpenTheBooks — $1,352,655.07 in direct payments since FY2016 plus a live $2.5 million NIH grant to the University of Michigan · Source: Fox News; OpenTheBooks
- $738 million+ — SPLC's own endowment as of its FY2024 Form 990 — 99.4% unrestricted — while the group ran repeated 'urgent' fundraising appeals; CharityWatch rated it an 'F' · Source: CharityWatch
Defending Education’s report, titled “CorruptED: SPLC Influence in Pre-Service Teacher and Continuing Education,” examined 100 Colleges of Education across 38 states and the District of Columbia. The organization is a parental-rights group led by president Nicole Neily; the Southern Poverty Law Center has itself designated Defending Education “extremist” in its own tracking materials, a mutual-antagonism dynamic worth naming so readers can weigh the source on both sides of this story.
The report’s central finding is not merely that SPLC materials appear in teacher training — it’s how they appear. “Few COEs outwardly acknowledge their use of SPLC materials,” the report states; “instead, many COEs hide their usage and promotion behind faculty login pages.” SPLC’s “Social Justice Standards” turn up inside required coursework under headings including “Equity, Access, and Anti-bias Education,” “Teaching for Social Justice,” “Critical Consciousness,” and “Socially Just Teachers.” Rhyen Staley, Defending Education’s Director of Research, said the pattern is not incidental: “It is quite clear that the SPLC’s programming has more than a trivial impact on education.”
“Unbeknownst to parents, the Southern Poverty Law Center has been poisoning pupils' minds around the country for years with its toxic curriculum.”
Nicole Neily, President, Defending Education, on the report's release, July 10, 2026
The report names specific institutions and specific federal dollars. At Northern Arizona University, a $275,000 National Science Foundation “Computer Science for All” grant is tied to teacher training that reaches Flagstaff Unified School District. At Claremont Graduate University, a $3.3 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded in 2019 commits its teaching fellows to SPLC’s “Social Justice Standards from Teaching Tolerance” — Teaching Tolerance being SPLC’s education program before its 2021 rebrand to Learning for Justice.
At Sacramento State, pre-service teachers are required to be evaluated on their integration of SPLC’s Social Justice Standards — not an elective module, but a mandatory checkpoint in the credentialing process. The report also names Brandeis University, the College of William & Mary, and Western Washington University among the 100 examined programs. At the University of Maryland College of Education, the pipeline runs further than a single classroom: the report ties the program into the Maryland State Department of Education’s new-teacher induction regulations, meaning the reach extends past any one campus into the state’s licensing apparatus for every new teacher entering its public schools.
Northern Arizona University: $275,000 NSF “Computer Science for All” grant tied to teacher training reaching Flagstaff USD.
Claremont Graduate University: $3.3 million U.S. Dept. of Education grant (2019); fellows commit to SPLC's Social Justice Standards curriculum.
Sacramento State: mandatory pre-service teacher evaluation on Social Justice Standards integration.
Brandeis University, College of William & Mary, Western Washington University: named among the 100 examined Colleges of Education using SPLC materials.
University of Maryland College of Education: program feeds into Maryland State Dept. of Education's new-teacher induction regulations statewide.
Staley put the underlying objection plainly: “Pre-service teachers should not be forced to adhere to or promote politically charged ideologies.” The report’s authors argue the issue is not whether equity or anti-bias concepts belong in teacher preparation at all, but whether a single advocacy organization’s branded curriculum should sit inside required coursework, frequently unlabeled as SPLC material to the students required to complete it.
The teacher-training report is the second half of a two-part project. Defending Education also maintains a companion tracker of SPLC’s “Learning for Justice” materials — the rebranded name, since 2021, for what was previously called Teaching Tolerance — inside actual K-12 classrooms. At its May 2026 launch, the tracker had identified the curriculum in 169 school districts. By the time of the teacher-training report’s release, that count had grown to 225 districts across 42 to 43 states and D.C., plus roughly 30 state government education entities.
The state-level reach cuts against any assumption this is purely a blue-state phenomenon: the tracker lists red-state education departments in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, and North Dakota among the roughly 30 state government entities using SPLC materials. Named individual districts include Cambridge Public Schools (Massachusetts), Yonkers Public Schools (New York), Lake Havasu Unified School District (Arizona), Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland), Springfield Township (Pennsylvania), North Providence School District (Rhode Island), and Alvin ISD and Judson ISD in Texas.
The picture is not uniform pushback-free adoption, either. In late 2023, Francis Howell School District in Missouri voted to formally rescind SPLC’s Social Justice Standards from its curriculum — the one confirmed instance in the tracker of a district reversing course entirely. It is a reminder that the 225-district figure describes where the materials landed, not that every school board that encountered them chose to keep them.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent years pushing its brand of politics into American classrooms while dodging accountability for how it raises and spends its money. Parents deserve to know what's actually in their kids' curriculum.
A separate watchdog, OpenTheBooks, traced the federal dollars specifically. It found $1,352,655.07 in direct taxpayer payments to SPLC since fiscal year 2016, on top of a live $2.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to the University of Michigan — principal investigator Professor Marc Zimmerman — whose own project page still lists SPLC’s Learning for Justice as a curriculum partner. Combined, OpenTheBooks put the total taxpayer-backed support tied to SPLC curriculum at roughly $3.85 million.
The Department of Health and Human Services told Fox News the NIH program had been “redesigned” — but the University of Michigan’s own project page, at the time OpenTheBooks published its findings, still described the SPLC integration in the grant’s design. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) put the objection in blunt terms: “Utilizing taxpayer resources to promote harmful, leftwing rhetoric in our education systems is inappropriate.”
The taxpayer-funding question sits alongside a second, harder-to-square fact: SPLC does not need the money. Its FY2024 Form 990 shows $129 million in total revenue and roughly $800 million in total assets, including an endowment exceeding $738 million — 99.4% of it unrestricted, meaning SPLC could spend it on anything it chooses. CharityWatch, which rates nonprofit financial stewardship, gave SPLC an “F.” Its analysts noted the reserves alone could fund roughly six years of SPLC’s operations without another dollar of new donations — yet the organization ran repeated “urgent” and “emergency” fundraising appeals throughout 2024.
The teacher-training report did not land in a vacuum. On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleging wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege SPLC funneled roughly $3 million to $4.1 million — from 2010 to 2014, and again from 2014 through 2023 — through shell accounts to informants tied to the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and other hate groups.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the allegations sharply, saying SPLC was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” SPLC has denied wrongdoing throughout. Bryan Fair, the organization’s Interim President and CEO, called the charges “outrage[ous]” and “false allegations,” and said the informants at the center of the case “risked their lives” and that the information they provided “saved lives.” On July 8, 2026, SPLC pleaded not guilty. The case has not gone to trial; no verdict has been reached, and nothing in this section should be read as an assertion of guilt.
President Donald Trump (R) weighed in on the indictment within days of it becoming public, calling SPLC one of “the greatest political scams in American History” and tying the case to his broader complaints about Democratic-aligned fundraising operations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the greatest political scams in American History, has been charged with FRAUD… another Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue, and many others.
Verbatim quote as reported by multiple news outlets, posted the same week as the DOJ indictment.
BREAKING: The Southern Poverty Law Center has been indicted on federal fraud charges, accused of funneling millions of dollars to informants tied to Klan and neo-Nazi groups through shell accounts, the Justice Department says.
About a month before the not-guilty plea, on June 9, 2026, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II.” Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) pressed Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair directly on the organization’s finances, its informant payments, and — by extension — the curriculum reach this page documents. Other witnesses included Dr. Alveda King of the America First Policy Institute and Ryan Bangert of Alliance Defending Freedom, both testifying critically of SPLC’s influence and funding practices.
SPLC is not without institutional defenders, and fairness requires naming them alongside its critics. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who leads a union of 1.6 million members, called the federal indictment “absurd but predictable” and defended SPLC’s work. National Education Association President Becky Pringle, whose union represents roughly 3 million members, went further, characterizing the DOJ’s prosecution as the department “abusing its power.” A broader civil-rights coalition echoed that defense online in the days after the indictment became public.
The federal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is a political attack on an organization that has spent decades documenting hate groups and defending civil rights. We stand with SPLC.
For years the SPLC used its 'hate group' list to smear mainstream conservative and faith-based organizations while raising hundreds of millions of dollars off of it. Now we know some of that money allegedly went to actual extremists. Accountability is coming.
The two threads — the curriculum footprint in teacher colleges and the criminal case in Alabama — are legally separate, and this page treats them that way. But politically, they have become one story: critics of SPLC point to the indictment as reason to distrust the organization’s judgment on everything else it touches, including what gets taught to the next generation of American teachers, while SPLC’s defenders say the prosecution itself is the politically motivated act. Readers can hold both the pending criminal case and the curriculum findings to the same standard this page tries to apply throughout: cite the primary source, name who said what, and do not convict what a jury has not yet heard.
A hundred teacher-training colleges in 38 states use SPLC's Social Justice Standards, often behind faculty-only login pages parents and even students never see. The pipeline runs through federal grants, including $3.3 million to Claremont Graduate University, into a K-12 tracker now counting 225 school districts and roughly 30 state education agencies. Almost $3.85 million in taxpayer money has helped fund it, per OpenTheBooks, even as SPLC sits on a $738 million endowment CharityWatch says could run the organization for six years without another donation. All of that is happening while SPLC fights an 11-count federal fraud indictment it has pleaded not guilty to — a case still awaiting trial. Both threads are real, and neither erases the other.
