Roughly half a billion dollars that were designated for DEI training grants within the Department of Education have been removed by DOGE in the last two weeks, reported the cost-cutting group.

The official DOGE X account, under the leadership of Elon Musk, has been providing regular updates on the contracts it has terminated and the programs it has defunded since Donald Trump’s inauguration. Their goal is to identify and eliminate federal fraud, waste, and abuse.

Through its efforts, DOGE and its supporters, known as the ‘nerd army,’ have reportedly saved taxpayers an impressive $55 billion in just a month since Trump’s return to the Oval Office, as detailed on its new website.

Many of these savings have been found by eliminating DEI projects which saw massive expansions under Joe Biden.

On Friday, DOGE announced it slashed $373 million for DEI programs within the Department of Education between February 12 – February 14. 

On February 10, DOGE announced it had cut $101 million for 29 DEI training grants at the department. 

And the week before, on February 7, DOGE shared that it cut $15 million in DEI funding for the Education Department, the group announced on X.

Tallying up the total savings resulting from the DEI programs being cut at the Department of Education since the first week of February, DOGE has claimed it saved taxpayers a whopping $489 million.   

Elon Musk and his team at DOGE have slashed roughly half a billion dollars in DEI initiatives at the Department of Education since the beginning of February 

Thousands of people attend a protest at the U.S. Capitol against the actions taken by Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to radically shrink the federal government in Washington, DC, on February 17, 2025

Trump has noted he wants to totally abolish the Department of Education and send the responsibilities currently handled by the agency back to the states 

One of the grants was meant train teachers to ‘engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism, and develop asset-based anti-racist mindsets,’ according to DOGE. 

‘One sought to train teachers to ‘help students understand / interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis,’ the group touted in another post on February 10. 

Another program that was defunded ‘previously hosted faculty workshops entitled ‘Decolonizing the Curriculum,” the cost cutting group wrote on February 7. 

Their quest to root out DEI at the Education Department came the same week that Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Education Department Craig Trainor sent a letter to all 50 states’ education departments notifying them they have 14 days to remove all DEI programs in public schools. 

‘Discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible,’ Trainor states in his letter, which was sent Friday. ‘Accordingly, I write to clarify and reaffirm the nondiscrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal financial assistance from the United States Department of Education.’ 

‘Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them—particularly during the last four years—under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,’ his letter continues.

‘But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal,’ he writes, adding that any state found not in compliance after two weeks could lose federal funding. 

But the DEI savings are not the only ones found within the Education Department. 

DOGE also announced last week that it canceled nearly $900 million dollars worth of non-DEI contracts too.

‘The Department Of Education terminated 89 contracts worth $881mm. One contractor was paid $1.5mm to ‘observe mailing and clerical operations’ at a mail center,’ the DOGE X account posted. 

Between the canceled DEI initiatives and other terminated contracts, DOGE has found close to $1.4 billion worth of savings during its review of the Department of Education.

Donald Trump said last week he wants the Department of Education to be shut down immediately, calling it a ‘con job.’ 

Reports have surfaced indicating the Republican could move to end the agency with an executive order. 

Though the official dismantling of the Department of Education would have to happen with the approval of Congress.