A new report from a nonprofit government transparency watchdog revealed that the Pentagon’s K-12 schools for children of military service members around the world, run by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), have been systematically implementing radical left-wing ideology in classrooms under the guise of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI), even after publicly denouncing the agenda.

The Open the Books oversight report detailed that DoDEA is a subagency of the Department of Defense (DOD) and educates approximately 66,000 students from pre-K to 12th grade. There are 160 DoDEA schools across the globe, and their budget in 2023 was $2.25 billion.

In 2022, DoDEA came under heavy scrutiny for the department’s first DEI chief, who had previously posted several tweets that were interpreted as racist against white people. Simultaneously, video clips surfaced from a 2021 “Equity and Access Summit” where “staffers discussed how the classrooms can make students more aware of social justice issues, hide ‘gender transitions’ from parents and force ‘uncomfortable conversations’ on race onto both children and staff—crying to be expected.”

In 2023, at a congressional hearing amid the ongoing controversy, DoDEA announced it would dismantle its DEI program and transfer existing DEI personnel to unrelated departments. That was far from the truth. In reality, internal emails revealed the DoDEA director conveyed that “DEI specialists would be embedded into different departments throughout the agency, and a new DEI Steering Committee would be formed, composed of agency executives and administrative staff.” 

Open the Books explained that “As DoDEA’s ideological operations are driven deeper underground, heavy-handed FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] redactions and months-long appeals processes prevent the public from learning more about this agency, to the detriment of military members, their families, and the American taxpayer.”

As states and corporations continue to distance themselves from the DEI agenda, it is clear that Americans are waking up to the reality of this dangerous agenda, and those in power can see it. Instead of recognizing the growing unpopularity of this movement and abandoning it, many government officials are finding ways to hide it from the public while still maintaining the agenda underground.

“Unfortunately the DoDEA has been pushing radical ideologies on children of military personnel for way too long. Imagine serving your nation on the battlefront and returning home to find your daughter is now your son, and to further learn that the schools provided to your family were the first to encourage this lie.” Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon said.

New insights reveal the DoDEA’s plans for universal pre-K, in which teachers will openly discuss gender and sexuality with four-year-olds.

“The men and women serving the United States abroad often have no choice but to send their children to DoDEA schools. DoDEA has proven to be an untrustworthy steward of these children’s minds, and agency leadership has gone out of their way to hide practices administrators must know the public and military families find objectionable,” the Open the Books report noted. (emphasis added)

We must demand better from our government institutions, especially those charged with educating impressionable young minds. Brainwashing students with a radical agenda while lying to parents and the public about it is inexcusable. It’s time to put an end to the DEI agenda once and for all.  

As DoDEA’s ideological operations are driven deeper underground, heavy-handed FOIA redactions and months-long appeals processes prevent the public from learning more about this agency, to the detriment of military members, their families, and the American taxpayer. 

“Unfortunately the DODEA has been pushing radical ideologies on children of military personnel for way too long. Imagine serving your nation on the battlefront and returning home to find your daughter is now your son, and to further learn that the schools provided to your family were the first to encourage this lie. This situation is outrageous, and fixing it should be a priority for a Republican administration,” Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon said.