Teacher Pipeline Programs Infiltrated by the Southern Poverty Law Center

A workforce solution has been turned into a social justice factory to indoctrinate children.

Grow Your Own (GYO) teachers' programs around the nation that receive federal funding have been hijacked by leftist extremist groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). To tackle the national teacher shortage, school districts have implemented teacher training programs in high schools often in partnership with local colleges. Many of these programs have been infiltrated by outside groups with social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agendas.

In GYO programs, high school students can take dual-enrollment courses that give them a boost toward a degree path to becoming a teacher. Often local districts will guarantee a job to these students who successfully complete their program and go on to earn a degree.

It's a great idea that's gone astray from its original purpose. Instead, teachers are being indoctrinated in social justice and political agendas that are then used in K-12 classrooms across the country.

High school students in these GYO programs are encouraged to participate in a student organization called Educators Rising, also known as PDK International. Educators Rising is an affiliate group that helps start GYO programs around the nation and they have a presence in all 50 states. In many states, far-left teachers' unions partner with Educators Rising to manage and provide the curriculum.

A federal grant program called the Perkins V is used to help fund these teacher training programs. The U.S. Department of Education should investigate whether these programs violate provisions of the grant or federal law.

Reprogramming Teachers with SPLC Influence

Educators Rising offers micro-credentials for teacher training including "anti-bias instruction" that utilizes components from the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC recently made headlines after they were indicted for money laundering and wire fraud in connection with payments they made to violent extremist groups including individuals associated with the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.

The micro-credential instructs students to study the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance program on anti-bias education which focuses on identity, justice, and action. The lessons push anti-American, social justice, activist indoctrination. For example, teachers are taught that if they set up their classroom to include a copy of the Declaration of Independence and quotes from Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein, it wouldn't be a welcoming class because the images are not diverse. The SPLC program also instructs that teachers should use gender-neutral practices because "some students may feel they are truly a different gender than their physical bodies suggest" and may "not fit neatly into either the male or female identity category."

The Educators Rising anti-bias curriculum, created by the SPLC, also encourages teachers to hold "family affinity events" such as events for "families of color" or LGBT families." LGBT Pride events are also pushed as a method to engage with the community. Teachers are told to display signs in their classroom such as "Safe Space (for LGBT Students)" and "No One Is Illegal." Educators should also network with groups such as "Teachers 4 Social Justice" and the "White Privilege Conference."

Restoration News obtained a sample Educators Rising curriculum. It instructs teachers to not focus on American history or culture saying, "Much of the curricula that students learn is based on a Western paradigm in which American history and culture tend to be at the center of. You learn about one side of history without getting context on the other." It further claims "you will grow in your ability to see the implicit thoughts and beliefs that permeate the content you learn." It appears Educators Rising doesn't want students to be taught from an American capitalist perspective.

The curriculum also states, "teachers should use a variety of resources to show students a more accurate and full perspective on marginalized communities, others' lived experiences, and clear up stereotypes, biases, and misconceptions." In other words, teachers must push leftist propaganda to reprogram children's minds.

Educators Rising also emphasizes the racial make-up of teachers in their program with a goal of recruiting new teachers who "reflect the demographics of their communities."

Educators Rising National Conference

The nation's two largest far-left teachers' unions are key sponsors of the Educator's Rising June 2026 conference in Portland, Oregon. The event includes workshops that push the equity narrative of "culturally responsive" teaching practices. In other words, aspiring teachers will be taught to identify and teach students based on their race, gender, or sexuality. Breakout sessions are focused on equity, culturally responsive teaching, student identity and "collective liberation"—a Marxist notion that no one is free until all are free.

Equity has become a dominant narrative used in public schools across the nation. It shifts the focus from providing equal opportunity to engineering equal outcomes, often sorting students into categories based on race, religion, or sexual identity. It's often paired with "culturally responsive teaching" practices which directs educators to incorporate students' racial, cultural, and personal backgrounds of individual students into classroom lessons.

For example, if a student is Muslim or gay, the teacher should provide resources to the whole class that would include the Muslim or gay perspective on a topic. Culturally responsive teaching methods elevate minority groups, and an instructional focus is placed on ensuring curriculum representation of those groups. Educators Rising claims the goal of their culturally responsive teaching is to "better support ethnically diverse students."

State Level Educators Rising Affiliates

North Carolina

North Carolina Teacher Cadet Program is an official state affiliate of Educators Rising which means students can participate in "sponsored activities, including conferences, competitions, leadership development, and networking events." The Teacher Cadet program "is a solution for the teacher shortage and the lack of educators who reflect student demographics." In other words, it pushes a false narrative that teachers who aren't of the same race as their students aren't as effective as teachers of the same race.

Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania GYO program is coordinated by the leftist Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA)—the state teachers union. It uses the SPLC's anti-bias micro-credential curriculum for its student teachers. Sample lesson plans for students provided by the PSEA teach "In your classrooms, the culture will be shaped by your lessons, environment, your identity, and your students' identities." What does a student's identity have to do with addition and subtraction?

The PSEA donated $210,000 in 2024 and $105,000 in 2023 to Educators Rising.

Virginia

In Virginia, the GYO program is called Teachers for Tomorrow. Virginia students are encouraged to participate in Educators Rising. The Virginia curriculum requires diversity training and uses multiple resources from the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance program. The curriculum also utilizes other far-left teaching resources such as Reading, Writing, and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom.

Michigan

Proud Michigan Educator (PME) Explore is the Michigan GYO program. It also utilizes resources from SPLC's Teaching Tolerance program. The PME curriculum dives into intersectionality and privilege—notions that aspects of your identity (race, gender, sexuality) influence your ability to succeed. There is an entire section titled "Equity, Equality, and Social Justice."

Federally funded Grow Your Own teacher pipeline programs deserve an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. They've been co-opted by activist organizations such as the SPLC, Educators Rising, and leftist teachers' unions. A promising workforce development program has been transformed into an ideological indoctrination camp. Local school boards have control over curriculum in schools; parents should demand accountability and an investigation into these programs locally.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS:

     CAUGHT: Loudoun Co. Teacher Uses School Email to Shield Superintendent from Congress

     THE LEFT: Student Governance Activism: The New Front in America’s Education Wars

     AL QAEDA ED: Inside the Terror-Linked Program Training Virginia's Teachers

     FIGHTING BACK: District Watch: Exposing the Radical Takeover of America’s Schools

We need your help to save America—chip in today.

Restoration News, a project of Restoration of America, is your trusted investigative news source for the America First movement. As a rapidly growing conservative news site, we focus on delivering accurate and insightful exposés on political news, immigration news, leftist lies, and other pressing issues affecting everyday Americans. Our uncompromising commitment to a hard-hitting, fact-based, America First, and faithful perspective ensures that you receive news that aligns with your values.

Every dollar gets us closer to winning the war on woke