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A new report from Defending Education shows the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Learning for Justice program contains educational materials to indoctrinate children into leftist and sexualized ideologies.  

“The Southern Poverty Law Center has been poisoning pupils’ minds around the country for years with its toxic curriculum,” Defending Education President Nicole Neily told Fox News Digital. 

Neily explained the SPLC’s effect on education, saying, “Issues such as queer theory, white privilege, and anti-racism have supplanted traditional coursework in history, social studies, and other core classes.”  

The SPLC is infamous for targeting Christian and conservative groups with its “HatewatchBlog” and “Hate Map,” as well as its recent indictment by the Department of Justice for fraud and conspiracy, using donor money to pay leaders of racist groups. 

But many do not know of its efforts to influence children with false and harmful gender ideology and critical race theory. 

The SPLC has been influencing teachers and students for 35 years, introducing its Teaching Tolerance program in 1991. The program was rebranded Learning for Justice in 2021; it promotes identity politics, homosexuality and transgenderism in K-12 classes. 

Defending Education is a national grassroots organization that informs parents about harmful agendas in public schools and promotes “the reestablishment of a quality, non-political education for all students.” 

For their efforts to improve education and protect parental rights, the SPLC labeled Defending Education “extremist” and listed it on its “Hate Map.” 

Defending Education’s exposé, “SPLC Curriculum in K-12,” explains the variety of ways SPLC materials have infiltrated our education system: 

The organization’s website and documents can be found on school district webpages, in teacher professional development and trainings, classroom lessons, district-wide curriculums, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), social justice standards, and district antiracism and equity policies and resources.

In its research, Defending Education found 42 states, 189 school districts and 30 state government agencies promote the SPLC’s website and teaching materials. But this list “is not exhaustive,” Defending Education said, adding: 

Unfortunately, the true scope of Learning for Justice’s impact on schools and districts is difficult to fully capture due to a lack of public access to curriculums, lessons, and textbooks. Additionally, because of the potential integration of the Social Justice Standards into several popular SEL curriculums, it is hard to track down all districts using the SEL programming that includes those standards.

The SPLC’s extremist education program has influenced many educators, as Family Research Council (FRC) reported in “The SPLC’s Radical Learning for Justice Program,” published in 2021: 

The SPLC delivered 900,000 copies of their Teaching Tolerance magazine in 2019 alone. The group’s magazine has been in circulation since 1991. That’s long enough for an entire generation of children influenced by the SPLC agenda to become teachers themselves.

FRC, a conservative, Christian policy organization, was also named a “Hate Group” by the SPLC. That label led to an SPLC supporter entering FRC’s offices in 2012, bent on murdering as many employees there as possible. The building manager stopped the assailant but was shot in the process. 

The report from FRC describes Learning for Justice’s (LFJ) emphasis on LGBT ideology: 

LFJ has many classroom resources on sexuality and gender. Sexual advocacy is a high priority for LFJ – most often without parental notification. Time and again in the LFJ materials, teachers and administrators are reminded NOT to share information with parents that would “out” a student’s sexuality or gender to their parents. … 

Learning for Justice’s “Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students” is a school climate guide that has been mailed to approximately 14,000 school districts in the country. 

FRC explains: 

The guide includes information on how to have a “gender-inclusive” school dress code; … suggests integrating “Queer Voices” into the curriculum; provides DO’s and DON’T’s for managing a student who “comes out” to a teacher at school and offers advice for managing objections from family members or anti-LGBTQ legal organizations.

Learning for Justice also created the “Queer America” podcast for educators, “an exploration of the history of sexual identity and gender identity in the United States.” 

Unsurprisingly, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), also push out SPLC educational resources. 

The NEA has listed SPLC’s Learning for Justice in a variety of educator resources, including “White Supremacy Culture Resources,” “Racial Justice in Education Resources,” and “Bias Free Schools.” 

According to Defending Education, the AFT also “promotes the use of Learning for Justice resources and lessons and has offered presentations to its members on how to integrate the Social Justice Standards into school curriculums and lessons.”

Defending Education lists districts and departments of education that have used or still use Learning for Justice as a teaching resource. The list is not comprehensive, so parents might want to check their school district or department of education’s website to see if the radical program is promoted for use in their child’s school. 

Related articles and resources: 

Cleaning House at the Southern Poverty Law Center

Defending Education: SPLC Curriculum in K-12: Learning for Justice/Teaching ToleranceTracker

DOJ Indicts SPLC for Fraud — Used Donor Money to Fund Racist Groups  

Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t

Southern Poverty Law Center Finally Names Focus on the Family a Hate Group

Southern Poverty Law Center Publishes ‘Year in Hate and Extremism’ – Continues to Target Christian Groups

SPLC Continues to Label Conservative Christian Organizations as ‘Hate Groups’

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

If you’re concerned about what your child is being taught in school, check out this updated, free resource from Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced it was investigating whether Illinois schools are teaching students “sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) content” – and whether they are notifying parents of their right to opt their children out of this instruction. 

According to a press release, the DOJ will be investigating 36 school districts across the state. The Civil Rights Division added: 

The investigation will also assess whether the Illinois School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) and girls sports teams based on biological sex.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon detailed the need for the investigation, saying: 

This Department of Justice is determined to put an end to local school authorities keeping parents in the dark about how sexuality and gender ideology are being pushed in classrooms. 

Supreme Court precedent leaves no doubt: parents have the fundamental right and primary authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. This includes exempting their children from ideological instruction that contradicts their values or decisions about their children’s health and best interests.

The DOJ statement said Illinois schools might be violating Title IX requirements as well as two recent Supreme Court decisions that affirm parental rights: Mahmoud v. Taylor (June 2025) and Mirabelli v. Bonta (March 2026). The department noted Illinois schools receive “hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding.”

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. It was intended to provide equal opportunities for girls and women in education, but schools have violated the law by allowing boys into girls sports, restrooms and locker rooms. 

Mahmoud v. Taylor involved a case where young children in Maryland were required to read LGBT books without their parents’ knowledge or consent. In a 6-3 ruling, the Court held schools can’t force children to participate in LGBT classroom material without offering parents the right to opt out based on sincerely held religious beliefs.

In Mirabelli, the Court ruled against California policies that required schools to hide information about a child’s sexual identity confusion. Pointing to previous decisions, the Court made clear: 

The right protected by these precedents includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health. 

Because of Illinois state agency requirements and state laws, it’s most likely that all these districts are violating Title IX and the two Supreme Court decisions. 

The Illinois High School Association, for example, has allowed “transgender athletes” – boys who claim to be girls – to play in girls sports since 2011. The state’s Human Rights Commission ruled in 2019 that public schools must allow “transgender” students access to the restrooms and locker rooms that matched their “gender identity.” 

The Illinois Board of Education issued “best practices” for “Supporting Transgender, Nonbinary and Gender Nonconforming Students” that follow that directive. The guidance also tells schools to follow a student’s lead with name and pronoun changes, including whether or not to tell parents. 

As far as classroom instruction, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 246 into law in 2019, requiring public schools to teach “the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this state.” 

The law directed schools to teach students “LGBT” history by eighth grade, and students must“demonstrate evidence of having a comprehensive knowledge thereof” in order to graduate from eighth grade. 

This may be difficult for Illinois students to demonstrate when just over half are proficient in reading – and that achievement came only after the state lowered test standards. But it seems teaching gay and transgender ideology is more important than basic skills.

Since teaching about L-, G-, B- or T-identified people is a state-wide history curriculum mandate, it’s unlikely that any Illinois schools notify parents about this subject matter.  

Six other states also mandate inclusion of LGBT ideology in social studies: California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington.

If your child’s school or school district has violated your parental rights, you can file a complaint with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

America First Legal released an updated parental opt-out templatefollowing the recent Supreme Court decisions in Mahmoud and Mirabelli. 

Related articles and resources: 

Back to School with LGBT Social Studies

Barrett v. Kagan: Key Takeaways From Supreme Court Ruling on ‘Transgender’ School Policies

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

Montgomery County Must Pay $1.5 Million to Religious Parents After Supreme Court Ruling

Supreme Court Affirms Parents’ Rights Over California’s ‘Transgender’ School Policies

Supreme Court Defends Religious Freedom, Parental Rights Over ‘LGBT’ Curriculum

Transgender Resources

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

If you’re concerned about what your child is being taught in school, check out this updated, free resource from Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.

We want parents to feel confident and equipped to manage issues affecting public – and private and online – schooling. The FREE downloadable resourcehelps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.