War on History Education

Unfortunately, both orders walk the edge of violating the Constitution, including by delivering Trump’s preferred brand of indoctrination.

However, teaching that the United States is fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory does not discriminate against any student, nor should it be put off limits by Washington. It might be a terribly inaccurate characterization of the country, but the federal government is not justified in prohibiting discussion of ideas just because the president thinks they are wrong.

Nowhere does the Constitution authorize the federal government, much less the president alone, to “promote patriotic education.”

The letter emphasizes the importance of Tribal consultation in shaping the “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” to ensure that state laws and locally led Tribal efforts to include Tribal history and culture in K-12 curriculum are upheld.

it sets forth the Trump administration’s plans for the future of public education, and, importantly, directs certain federal agencies to examine eliminating funding for schools that advance or promote certain prohibited ideologies.

The order defines this as "an ideology that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations,

. For instance, we can expect publication of the order’s requisite Ending Indoctrination Strategy within the next three months, and we can anticipate legal challenges to this and other executive actions impacting public education.

Rutgers considers diversity to be necessary to foster the cultural competencies, resilience, and openness to dialogue that promote the intellectual growth and intergroup understanding that are essential for success in the classroom, the university community, and society at large

This commitment to “Patriotice education” through indoctrination and force is part of a much larger plan to expunge any exploration of race and gender in our history and its place in organizing our society today.

In other words, ask for clarification. Force them to ask their superiors for clarification and so on. Get them on record both for later reference and as a way to begin the conversation. My concern right now is not so much with the federal government, but with local right-wing activists like “Moms for Liberty” who will use this opportunity to ratchet up their hate campaign against local teachers.

Illinois Governor Pritzker

Now is not the time to be complacent. Now is the time to act.

The University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report, often cited as the source of calls for “institutional neutrality,” declares, “From time to time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values.”

We encourage educators, policymakers, and stakeholders to explore our position statements on academic freedom, human rights education, racial literacy, and the essential role of social studies in preparing students for active participation in democracy.

If you're running an African-American history class, could you perhaps be in of this corridor of this executive order? Linda McMahon (01:11:53): I'm not quite certain and I'd like to look into it further and get back to you on that. Sen. Murphy (01:11:58): So there's a possibility, there's a possibility you're saying, that public schools that run African-American history classes, this is a class that has been taught in public schools for decades, could lose federal funding if they continue to teach African-American history. Linda McMahon (01:12:17): No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that.

The annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) is rarely an occasion that sparks intense controversy, but this year’s gathering of historians proved to be an exception. At the business meeting on January 6, 2025, AHA members overwhelmingly passed (428 to 88) a resolution condemning Israel’s “scholasticide” — i.e., intentional decimation of educational and archival infrastructure — in Gaza. Given the lopsided nature of the vote, it then came as a shock to many AHA members and observers that the 16-member AHA Council subsequently decided to veto the resolution, declaring that it was beyond the scope of the association’s mission

What is stated as a matter of fact is only what can be considered beyond dispute: that the IDF’s campaign in Gaza has obliterated all 12 universities in the territory and led to the deaths of hundreds of teachers and professors, not to mention thousands of young students.

At a moment like this, eschewing political controversy could prove to be the most divisive position of all.

The applicant will not operate any programs promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws, in accordance with Executive Order No. 14173. The applicant understands that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology, pursuant to Executive Order No. 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.

Requiring public colleges and universities to investigate complaints about what students say and do in the classroom and on campus.

Authorizing state boards of regents and state officials to overrule professional judgment, to reject the “consensus or foundational beliefs of an academic discipline,” and to censure or terminate faculty (regardless of tenure) if they deem them to have violated vague standards of “intellectual diversity.”

while I personally support the BDS resolution, what has soured me on the MLA is not the failure to adopt it, a failure which might have also resulted from sending it to the delegate assembly,

Historians, and all who teach and care about the American past at historic sites, in museums, libraries, publishing, and in social studies and history classrooms should loudly protest this incursion into our schools, our writing, and our minds.

We urge our colleagues and all citizens committed to democracy to speak out against those who truly seek indoctrination, to advocate for good history.

Our society has never needed us quite as much as now.

the point of the mythic past is that it’s mythic. The desire is for a past that never existed, and to have nostalgia for a past that never existed, you must go further and further back, until the details are murky enough that you can project any fantasy you’d like onto the period.

As each generation ages into its disposable income, movie studios mine the childhoods of their audiences for nuggets of IP gold, resurrecting franchises that should have stayed dead and selling toys to adults. For every person who complains about cynical cash ins, there are three more willing to spend their money on reboots and merch. Nostalgia sells.

But if we want to defeat fascism, we must fight our natural impulse toward nostalgia.

Federal executive orders that seek to undermine educational equity and inclusion go against the values that make New Jersey great.

This is a gross overreach of federal power and antithetical to the values that New Jersey aspires to uphold. The federal government has always had a limited role in K-12 education.

In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.

“Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (January 20, 2025) shall apply to this order.

“Patriotic education” means a presentation of the history of America grounded in:  (i)    an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles;  (ii)   a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history;  (iii)  the concept that commitment to America’s aspirations is beneficial and justified; and (iv)   the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.

Ending Indoctrination Strategy to the President,

1776 Commission in the Department of Education

upon request, advise executive departments and agencies regarding their efforts to ensure patriotic education is appropriately provided to the public at national parks, battlefields, monuments, museums, installations, landmarks, cemeteries, and other places important to the American founding and American history, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law;

[e]ach educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution,”

demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.

d)  “Patriotic education” means a presentation of the history of America grounded in:  (i)    an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles;  (ii)   a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history;  (iii)  the concept that commitment to America’s aspirations is beneficial and justified; and (iv)   the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.

too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school.

Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall review any available mechanisms under which military-connected families may use funds from the Department of Defense to attend schools of their choice, including private, faith-based, or public charter schools, and submit a plan to the President describing such mechanisms and the steps that would be necessary to implement them beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

When our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities.

In a time when assaults on higher education are the most acute since the McCarthyite assaults of the 1950s, the University’s leadership and trustees have abandoned any duty to protect the university’s most precious resources: its faculty, students, and academic mission.

As Columbia’s Board of Trustees has become constituted largely by hedge fund managers, investment bankers, and venture capitalists, the university has become more of a real estate holding concern than a non-profit educational institution.  With this degradation of the university’s leadership has come, in some cases, an inability to resist pressures placed on the university by outside entities carrying a brief for the destruction of higher education, and in other cases, a shared commitment to a right-wing, and pro-Israel, ideology.