Watchdog Flags Millions Tied to SPLC
A conservative watchdog group says more than $3.85 million in taxpayer-backed support has been tied to the Southern Poverty Law Center and related projects since 2016. The latest fight centers on a $2.5 million University of Michigan grant that, according to public records and university materials, was built around the SPLC’s Learning for Justice curriculum for middle school students.
OpenTheBooks says its review of public records found $1,352,655.07 paid directly to the SPLC by school districts, states, cities, counties, universities, and other public entities since fiscal year 2016. It also says the active National Institutes of Health-backed University of Michigan project continues to describe the SPLC as a partner and still references the curriculum in its project materials.
The original grant application, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, said researchers would bring the SPLC’s then-named Teaching Tolerance curriculum into an existing middle school program and test it in six Genesee County schools. University materials now say the effort uses Learning for Justice content in a program aimed at addressing racism and racial discrimination.
That has drawn criticism from opponents who say the lessons go far beyond basic civics or anti-bias education. Fox News Digital reviewed eighth-grade materials that included a map of active hate groups and language that placed some groups alongside the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and Black separatists. Other materials framed students as part of a movement for justice and pushed activism-focused toolkits.
The Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Department said the program is no longer being funded in its original form and has been redesigned to focus on teen and family violence. But OpenTheBooks says the University of Michigan’s current project page still shows the SPLC-linked curriculum as part of the active grant.
The dispute comes as the House Judiciary Committee has turned up the heat on the SPLC. This week it held a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate,” where lawmakers examined the group’s influence and the way it labels political and religious opponents.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said taxpayer dollars should not be used to promote what he called harmful left-wing rhetoric in schools. Tyler O’Neil, who testified at the hearing, said the NIH should address parents’ concerns about the grant and argued that federal money should not be used for a divisive classroom agenda.
Fox News Digital said it reached out to the University of Michigan, including project leader Marc Zimmerman and communications staff, for comment.