The U.S. Department of Education has joined forces with the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, and over 40 national and state organizations to launch the America 250 Civics Education Coalition. 

The America 250 Civics Education Coalition is described by the Department as a “landmark initiative” to “renew patriotism, strengthen civic knowledge, and advance a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation.” The coalition is led by the AFPI, an organization closely aligned with President Trump, which has recently advocated for reduced federal involvement in education and expansion of school voucher programs.

Leading partners in the coalition include conservative groups such as Turning Point USA, Moms for America, PragerU, the Heritage Foundation, and Hillsdale College.

Critics argue that groups like Turning Point USA and PragerU promote conservative, partisan perspectives that may lead to political indoctrination rather than balanced civic education.

For example, Prager U frames American slavery as a “compromise” made by the Founding Fathers for the benefit of the nation’s unity, minimizing the moral gravity and human suffering involved. The videos often present historical figures like Frederick Douglass or Booker T. Washington in a way that downplays their challenges to systemic oppression and frames them as advocates for gradual change, personal responsibility, and compromise over direct social activism.

PragerU has produced videos suggesting it is unfair to judge historical figures by today’s moral standards, even using characters like Christopher Columbus to imply that being enslaved was better than being killed. PragerU’s slavery lesson materials sanitize or relativize the horrors of slavery, sometimes portraying enslaved people as accepting their condition or depicting the era with insufficient condemnation.

The reality of slavery in the United States was a centuries-long system of racialized human exploitation, featuring profound brutality, generational trauma, and systemic social and economic oppression enacted primarily upon people of African descent.

Between 1501 and 1867, nearly 13 million African people were trafficked across the Atlantic, with millions enslaved and abused in the United States. Slavery’s economic value fueled America’s growth, and as cotton, sugar, and tobacco plantations grew across the Southern states, countless families were broken up and exploited through forced migration and sale. This system created lasting political advantages for slave owners and embedded racial hierarchy into American law and custom, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise granting disproportionate power to Southern states.

Slavery in America meant that Black people were treated as property, forcibly separated from families, physically abused, denied basic rights, and enslaved for life—the status was permanent, hereditary, and defined by race.

Even after the legal abolition of slavery in 1865, many of its economic and social functions persisted through segregation, convict leasing, and disenfranchisement. 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced plans to award grants supporting “a civic education that teaches American history, values, and geography with an unbiased approach.” However, questions remain about how these grants will be administered, since federal law prohibits the Department of Education from exercising control over curriculum or instruction at local levels.

The coalition has already hosted its first roundtable and is preparing a year-long agenda. Plans include launching the Fundamental Liberties College Speaker Series and a 50-state speaking tour aimed at college campuses. 

The following is a list of organizations part of the agreement:

• 1776 Project Foundation: Seeks to combat what it views as left-wing influence in schools by promoting a “patriotic” and traditional narrative of U.S. history, opposing critical race theory and equity-based reforms.
• Alabama Policy Institute: Advocates for conservative state policies emphasizing limited government, religious liberty, and traditional family values.
• Alliance Defending Freedom: hampions Christian conservative causes, primarily focused on legal battles against abortion, LGBTQ+ rights expansions, and defending religious expression in public life.
• Alumni Free Speech Alliance: Works against what it identifies as progressive “cancellation” on college campuses, focusing on opposition to speech codes and “woke” ideology.
• America First Legal: Functions as a conservative legal group fighting against progressive policy reforms via lawsuits, closely aligned with Trump-era legal priorities.
• American Center for Law & Justice: Engages in politically conservative legal advocacy with an emphasis on religious freedom, anti-abortion legislation, and skepticism toward secularism in government.
• American Cornerstone Institute: Promotes Trump administration policy legacies, especially on immigration, religious liberty, and American exceptionalism.
• American Legislative Exchange Council: Advances conservative legislation at the state level, including deregulation, tax cuts, school vouchers, and opposition to union power.
• American Moment: Recruits and prepares young conservatives for influencing government and shifting public policy toward populist, nationalist priorities.
• American Principles Project: Advocates against expanding LGBTQ+ protections and supports conservative family policy, school choice, and opposition to “woke” curriculum.
• Catholic Vote: Engages in campaigns aligning with Catholic teaching but focused on conservative causes like pro-life laws and religious liberty protection.
• Center for Education Reform: Pushes for charter schools and school vouchers, aiming to disrupt teachers’ unions and public school dominance with market-based reforms.
• Center for Renewing America: Champions Trump-aligned populist policies including border security, anti-woke education, and defense of “America First” ideals.
• Center for Urban Renewal: Seeks to revive cities through conservative, community-led initiatives often skeptical of welfare state expansion.
• Claremont Institute: Promotes American nationalism, constitutional “originalism,” and opposition to progressive identity politics.
• Commonwealth Foundation: Advocates for reducing state government regulations and taxes within Pennsylvania, promoting privatization and school choice.
• Concerned Women for America: Pushes against abortion rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and for traditional family gender roles in public policy.
• Conservative Partnership Institute: Helps coordinate strategy for conservative lawmakers to push “America First” priorities in Washington.
• Constituting America: Mobilizes for constitutional originalism, limited government, and patriotic education in school curriculum.
• Council for National Policy: Acts as a secret network of right-wing leaders coordinating strategies on issues like voting laws, abortion, and religious liberty.
• Eagle Forum: Actively opposes feminist movements, abortion rights, and expansion of LGBTQ+ protections, supporting conservative Christian advocacy.
• Faith and Freedom Coalition: Mobilizes evangelical Christians to influence elections and policy against abortion, for religious liberty, and “traditional” marriage.
• First Liberty Counsel & First Liberty Institute: Both groups focus on legal challenges to expand Christian expression in public institutions and resist secularist policies.
• Goldwater Institute: Libertarian-conservative think tank promoting deregulation, tax reduction, and constitutional limits on government, especially through lawsuits.
• Heritage Foundation (author of Project 2025 and Project Esther: Shapes conservative legislation and administrative strategy, known for advocating deregulation, anti-immigration policies, and social conservatism.
• Hillsdale College: Seeks to expand classical education emphasizing “Western values” and Christian heritage, often advising conservative state curricula.
• Intercollegiate Studies Institute for Education Reform: Promotes traditionalist, anti-progressive curricula and classic liberal arts education among college students.
• James Madison Institute: Miami-based think tank pushing school choice, deregulation, and limited government in Florida.
• Job Creators Network: Lobbies for deregulation and tax cuts to benefit small businesses and advance pro-market reforms.
• Leadership Institute: Trains conservative activists and political candidates to influence campus, media, and government policy.
• Moms for America & Moms for Liberty: Mobilize parents to challenge progressive school policies, oppose sex/gender education, and advocate for “parental rights” and book bans.
• National Association of Scholars: Opposes “woke” campus policies and affirmative action, promotes “Western civilization” curricula.
• PragerU: Produces and distributes videos and curriculum to counter progressive narratives in schools, casting U.S. history and culture from a right-leaning perspective.
• Priests for Life: Works politically and pastorally to restrict and eventually outlaw abortion nationwide.
• Religious Freedom Institute: Seeks to secure and expand special legal protections for religious expression, often with a Christian focus.
• Texas Public Policy Foundation: Implements conservative agenda in Texas on taxes, energy deregulation, and school choice, often challenging federal overreach.
• The Fund for American Studies: Promotes free-market and limited government policies through student education and internships.
• Turning Point USA: Aims to shift college and high school students toward free-market, socially conservative, and anti-progressive activism on campuses.
• Woodson Center: Advocates for community solutions to poverty and social breakdown, often challenging progressive welfare policy.