What Trump’s new civics education program means for women’s history
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a new civics education program for schools, led by the America First Policy Institute along with more than 40 conservative groups including Moms for Liberty, Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation – the think tank behind “Project 2025.” The initiative, announced Sept. 17 in advance of the nation’s 250th birthday next year, is “dedicated to renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation.”
It’s the latest in a string of the administration’s policy moves to influence the American education system, including withholding funding from universities and K-12 schools whose actions are deemed inconsistent with the administration’s values. But this would be the first federal education program led by partisan organizations — unprecedented in the U.S.
Education policy experts worry the initiative smacks of authoritarianism — the federal government is prohibited by law from “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” in schools. Critics are concerned the initiative will be used to reinforce restrictive gender roles and erase seminal women’s history, setting the stage for an increasingly inegalitarian future for women.
“These very gender-essentialist traditional views of women on the right right now … if we were to see that promoted more in K-12 schools, I think that’d be a real harm to gender equality,” says Rachel Perera, an education policy and governance studies expert at the Brookings Institution.
But Tina Descovich, CEO of Moms for Liberty, a parents’ organization that advocates against school curricula that mention LGBTQ+ themes, critical race theory and discrimination, disagrees. She argues that with the civics program, “one of our big initiatives is going to be highlighting women during the founding of this country.”
In response to a query from Women Rule, the U.S. Deparment of Education said in emailed statement the agency “does not control curriculum or determine academic standards and instruction in public schools – federal law explicitly prohibits that. Those are state and local responsibilities. The Department’s press release clearly states, ‘the coalition will unveil a robust programming agenda, including the Fundamental Liberties College Speaker Series and a 50-state speaking tour on college campuses nationwide.’”
The America 250 Civics Education Coalition will be overseen by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who previously worked at the America First Policy Institute. (McMahon signed an ethics waiver, allowing her to participate despite the conflict of interest.)
The AFPI did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
AFPI, whose former CEO is the current Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, is a conservative think tank that advocates against abortion rights and promotes “the biblical truth that there are only two genders, and they are assigned at birth.” Turning Point USA, which is now headed by Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, advocates against feminism and encourages women to be homemakers who “submit” to their husbands, stating that “the kitchen is where the real revolution starts.”
Meanwhile, M4L — which has 310 chapters across 48 states — has pushed to remove books from school curricula like Gender Queer, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Bluest Eye, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington and Ruby Bridges Goes to School, citing their “inflammatory racial and religious commentary” and “alternate gender ideologies.”
Perera says the groups’ selective approach to education and minimization of present-day injustices could be “limiting young people’s understanding of where we’ve come and where we might go in terms of society and gender equality.”
Descovich dismisses concerns the program will overlook women’s contributions to American history, such as the suffrage movement. She tells Women Rule, “we want to go back further and talk about women that played a role, like Abigail Adams being a counselor to her husband [during the Revolutionary War] ... There’s so much to uncover about what women have done in this country even before fighting for the right to vote.”