National education scores are at staggering lows, yet philanthropists eager to advance radical left programs in academia, such as “woke math” and other racial or overtly political initiatives, have stood firm on their financial contributions to America’s education system and the political candidates who champion them.

For example, Arnold Ventures, a Texas-based limited liability corporation focused on “minimizing injustice” in education, has long pushed for and donated to organizations that promote woke initiatives in academia, and the bipartisan officials in charge of their implementation. 

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In 2025, Ventures and the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, an organization financed by Arnold Ventures that focuses on tackling “social issues” in academia, partnered with the state of Maryland to administer $20 million to social spending programs for students. 

Maryland has a long history of wasteful social spending programs, and despite imposing a burden on taxpayers for the purpose of education, Maryland still ranks 20th in the nation on education according to the U.S. News World Report. 

The Founder of The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, Democratic Candidate for Governor of Maryland Jon Baron, previously partnered with President Barack Obama’s Administration in 2015 to enact the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The policy aimed at closing the gap in education disparity, has proven unsuccessful since its implementation. 

The recent scores from the Department of Education Nation’s Report Card show that the gap between top performing and low performing students has widened in recent years. 

Arnold Ventures also donated to The Conversation, an “academic” journal for administrators in grade school and higher education. The Conversation recently received scrutiny after many of the administrators who influence America’s next generation celebrated the murder of Conservative figure Charlie Kirk in the journal, as reported by The College Fix. 

Arnolds and Baron are certainly not the first, or last billionaire philanthropists to stand behind a radicalized academia. 

Liz Simmons, the daughter of billionaire hedge fund manager Jim Simons, oversees a billion dollar foundation founded by her father, which not only donates New Yorkers for Lower Costs, the political action committees for self-avowed socialist Zohran Mamdani, but also pushes for questionable education reforms. 

“Woke math lowers the bar without helping black students. While test results show gains among black and Hispanic students, the gap with Asian and white students hasn’t closed. We hope Mamdani doesn’t undo progress.” Yiatin Chu, of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum & Education and the Asian Wave Alliance, said. 

“I’m already concerned as a parent that Mamdani has stated he will resume many of former far-left Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ‘diversity initiatives, which were racially toxic,’” Hahn added.

New Yorkers for Lower Cost is only the latest pushed by money from the Simmons Foundation. 

As reported by RealClearInvestigations, the Foundation recently cut a check for almost $600,000 to TODOS Mathematics for All, an Arizona-based organization that calls for elevating DEI practices and anti-racist activism into all math instruction. 

For example, the organization hosted an hour-long webinar on “2SLGBTQIA+ identity in mathematics education” last year, and supported a public-school program that motivates students to take notes of the characters in picture books by race. Teachers would then guide the students in creating racial scorecards for each book at the end of each sitting, the students would vote to select the books with fewer white characters. 

“We can no longer believe that a focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment alone will be enough to prepare our children for survival in the world. We need antiracist conversations for ourselves and for our children,” TODOS president Linda Fulmore announced in 2020.

Yes, that is a real quote. What is more alarming than the quote, is that it is not an isolated incident. The foundation directly pushes for social initiatives that alter the traditional curricula that have continuously enhanced America’s workforce. 

For example, in August, the Simmons Foundation launched the Infinite Sums, a program dedicated to propelling the foundation’s “society and culture division” in academia. 

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Since the Obama Administration, education has continuously failed students through the implementation of billionaires’ desires for social programs and woke agendas that erode one’s trust in education.

For far too long, dark money has pushed narratives, and not viable curricula, on America’s children. The recent consequences parents have witnessed make this is a critical moment for us to consider a different approach.