The Education Department announced “patriotic education” initiatives and a coalition designed to bolster efforts to teach “strengthen civic knowledge” in schools across the country on Wednesday.
The Trump administration will prioritize federal grant funding to programs focusing on “patriotic education” to promote a civic education that “teaches American history, values, and geography with an unbiased approach,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon revealed this week.
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“Recently, I saw a statistic that 41% of students, 18 to 29-year-olds, only 41% say that they love America, and that means the balance don’t love America,” McMahon told Marisa Schultz, news editor for the Washington Examiner, during an event on Wednesday. “Why aren’t they proud to be Americans? It’s because they don’t know America. They don’t know the foundation, they don’t know the real history of our country. And I think it is incumbent upon us to return civics to all of our schools, from, you know, elementary all the way through high school and higher ed.”
The Education Department said it is also partnering with over forty organizations to further patriotic initiatives in classrooms nationwide. The public-private partnership launching the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, described as an agenda to “renew patriotism, strengthen civic knowledge, and advance a shared understanding of America’s founding principles,” and the push to prioritize grant funding for patriotic education anticipate the country’s 250th anniversary next July.
The America 250 Civics Education Coalition includes GOP affiliates such as Turning Point USA, whose co-founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last week in Utah. America First Policy Institute, where McMahon used to work, Hillsdale College, and the Heritage Foundation are among other dozens of conservative state and national organizations that have signed on to McMahon’s effort.
“Turning Point USA, which includes Turning Point Education, is more resolved than ever to advance God-centered, virtuous education for students flourishing across our nation,” Dr. Hutz H. Hertzberg, Chief Education Officer of Turning Point Education, said. “With that in mind, we are honored to partner with the distinguished organizations that comprise the America 250 Civics Education Coalition to restore, revive, and reclaim robust American civics education for all students throughout our country.”
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At President Donald Trump’s direction, McMahon has pushed to eliminate the Education Department altogether, citing concerns that the massive bureaucracy has systematically failed students. While the effort has been stalled due to arguments that congressional approval is needed to abolish the agency altogether, McMahon has moved forward with plans to dismantle the department, including laying off nearly 1,400 employees.
“I mean, when you have high school students that don’t know you know what those three departments of our government are for heaven sakes, they don’t know what even that you have to register to vote in different states,” she told Schultz Wednesday. “I mean, it is appalling the lack of knowledge that many of our students have. And so one of my initiatives is to make sure that patriotic education, even though the Department of Education does not control curriculum, we don’t hire teachers, we don’t buy books, we don’t do any of that. But let’s encourage, if we can.”