A watchdog group, OpenTheBooks, has revealed that at least $3.85 million in taxpayer-backed support is tied to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), including a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH)-backed University of Michigan project that integrates the SPLC’s racial justice curriculum into middle school classrooms.
OpenTheBooks reported that $1,352,655.07 in taxpayer dollars has been paid directly to the SPLC from various public entities, including school districts, states, cities, counties, and universities, since fiscal year 2016.
The University of Michigan project materials explicitly describe the grant as integrating the SPLC’s “Learning for Justice” curriculum, previously known as “Teaching Tolerance,” into programming for middle-school classrooms.
Original Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-obtained applications for the grant stated that researchers would integrate “the Teaching Tolerance curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center” into an existing middle school program, testing it across six Genesee County, Michigan, middle schools.
Fox News Digital reviewed 8th-grade lesson materials from the SPLC curriculum, which directed students to a “map of active hate groups” suggesting “anti-gay” and “radical traditionalist Catholic” organizations are equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, and Black-Separatists.
Other Learning for Justice youth materials encourage students to see themselves as part of a “movement for justice” and include toolkits for sustained activism, such as writing letters to corporate or elected officials and organizing live social media chats to raise awareness for social justice issues.
The State's Intervention
President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informed Fox News Digital that the program “is no longer being funded” and has been “redesigned” to focus on reducing teen and family violence.
However, OpenTheBooks pointed to the University of Michigan’s current project page, which still states the active NIH-backed project integrates SPLC’s Learning for Justice curriculum and lists SPLC as a partner.
FOIA-obtained NIH records also show the original grant documents repeatedly described the project as integrating SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance curriculum into the YES program.
This scrutiny coincides with a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate,” which examined what the committee described as SPLC’s role in “distorting civil rights policy” and newly released information alleging the group funneled money to extremists it claimed to combat.
Tyler O’Neil, author of “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center” and a Daily Signal senior reporter, testified at the hearing, telling Fox News Digital that “the NIH needs to address parents’ concerns about this grant.”
O’Neil further stated that “The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice project pushes critical race theory and transgender ideology,” and uses its “hate map” to condemn parental rights groups, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asserted, “Utilizing taxpayer resources to promote harmful, leftwing rhetoric in our education systems is inappropriate,” and expressed support for efforts to “root out and expose organizations like SPLC.”
Allegations of Financial Misconduct
The Department of Justice indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center last month over allegations of wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors described these allegations as tied to a covert paid-informant program involving individuals associated with extremist groups, though SPLC has denied wrongdoing.
OpenTheBooks president John Hart stated, “Taxpayers have the right to know what groups, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has financed racial animosity, are doing with their money.”
OpenTheBooks also indicated that its figures may understate SPLC’s actual taxpayer-backed footprint, as free classroom resources and teacher-training materials often do not appear in spending databases.
The watchdog group noted that uncovering details of “Teaching Tolerance” and the SPLC curriculum required submitting a FOIA request and waiting ten weeks, suggesting significant indirect support for the nonprofit may not be readily visible to taxpayers.
A previous Fox News Digital report, citing an investigation by conservative nonprofit Defending Education, found SPLC’s Learning for Justice program integrated into K-12 lesson plans and materials in 169 school districts across 42 states and Washington, D.C., including in classrooms as early as kindergarten, promoting themes such as “anti-racism,” White privilege, and gender ideology.