A new report from the education watchdog group Defending Education alleges that materials produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are being used to train future K-12 teachers in 38 states. The report focuses on the SPLC's "Learning for Justice" programme (formerly "Teaching Tolerance") and its associated "Social Justice Standards", which researchers say are embedded within university teacher-preparation courses. The findings come as Congress and federal investigators are said to be intensifying their scrutiny of the SPLC.

Researchers examined 100 colleges of education and found the SPLC's standards incorporated into required courses, teacher candidate handbooks, student teacher evaluations, lesson-planning assignments, departmental frameworks and professional development, under headings such as "Teaching for Social Justice" and "Critical Consciousness". Defending Education's director of research, Rhyen Staley, argued that trainee teachers "should not be forced to adhere to or promote politically charged ideologies to obtain a degree" and that students deserve an education free of political bias. The report also claims many colleges keep their use of the materials hidden behind faculty login pages rather than acknowledging it openly. Notably, the SPLC had previously labelled Defending Education an "extremist" group.