The Trump Administration has an opportunity to promote quality civics.
As the Trump Administration pushes DEI out of schools and colleges, it should incentivize patriotic civic education as a salutary alternative. While curricular mandates from Washington violate federalism—besides the views of the growing chorus of Americans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education—many federal tools remain available.
DEI, which nominally denotes “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” has come to stand for the full set of anti-American teachings and principles outlined in the January 2021 report of the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission. These include promoting a false history of slavery that inaccurately denigrates the American Founders, praising progressivism and muting the horrors of Communism, and inculcating racist identity politics.
In contrast, the 1776 Report highlights ways Americans can develop enlightened patriotism. The family, inspiring and accurate education, noble stories, solid scholarship, and reverence for the rule of law under our common Constitution of the United States all have their roles.
The Trump Administration is already harvesting the lowest-hanging fruit by fully enforcing civil rights laws against schools and colleges. The Valentine’s Day civil rights guidance, and the ensuing Q&A document from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, are a good start in excising illegal DEI—that is, when it rises to the level of a civil rights violation—from education.
In short, these documents make clear that DEI in American education is over. Identity group preferences, including workarounds with discriminatory goals, will no longer be tolerated. Indifference to or discriminatory treatment of anti-Semitic harassment—including when a university treats complaints differently depending on the group identity of the complainants or those complained against—is also forbidden.
All of this is solid legal ground, and the harvest is plentiful after decades of neglect. Investigations and enforcement actions are underway.
Even better will be amendments to Civil Rights Act of 1964 regulations (Title VI in the education context) by the agencies that enforce civil rights across the federal government. President Trump’s first-day executive order requires each agency head to recommend ways to align “regulations, guidance…and litigating positions with the policy of equal dignity and respect”—which has been violated by “equity” policies that have treated people differently by identity group. The recommendations are due by March 21.
Inspiring Patriotic Education vs. Mandating Curriculum
So long as the Education Department exists, it remains bound by a strong prohibition against mandating curriculum. This did not stop the government, however, from using financial incentives and waivers to push states to adopt Common Core standards around 15 years ago. While this strategy probably should be discouraged in principle—the Feds shouldn’t enforce curriculum standards either indirectly or directly—more palatable and legitimate routes remain available.
Museums, Monuments, and the National Endowments
America’s monuments, museums, and grantmaking agencies teach, both implicitly and explicitly, what America and Americans value. Similarly, national arts institutions such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts teach by what they choose to perform.
Congress declared in 1974 that museums, including federally controlled ones, should be considered “educational institutions.” The National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Institute of Museum and Library Services have a common ancestor in the 1965 National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act.
The Trump Administration can use such institutions to celebrate and promote America’s founding principles, to insist that American history be taught accurately, and to determine grants and public programming accordingly. Surely, American public policy should not denigrate American interests and values but support them.
Critics who believe that the Feds shouldn’t be in this business in the first place have a good point. But so long as these institutions exist, they should do right by America’s taxpayers and promote quality civics content.
Ennobling Stories of Great Men and Women
President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes serves a similar purpose. We are an exceptional “land of heroes.” When we honor and retell the most inspiring stories of America’s bravest, wisest, and most virtuous men and women, we reinforce what President Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory” that unify and motivate us across time and place.
In this style of what almost amounts to a political religion, executive branch leaders should think of themselves not as leaders of bureaucrats but as moral leaders who, through their speeches and actions, frequently remind us of who we are and what we celebrate. Strong leadership persuades more than it mandates.
Celebrating 1776 and 1789
The Trump Administration has not only revived the 1776 Commission but has also added Task Force 250 to celebrate America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, and develop a year’s worth of activities before and after. These efforts will complement—and might significantly overshadow—Congress’s United States Semiquincentennial Commission, which has accomplished little so far, likely due to bureaucracy and Biden-era embarrassment about American greatness.
Time is short. With the right leaders in place, though, America will be ready for the 2026 celebration of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the principles of popular self-government embedded in our Constitution.
Family Policy, School Policy, and School Choice
A Heritage Foundation survey found that less than 10% of parents think the federal government should take the lead in civics education. The Trump Administration therefore has an opportunity to remove barriers that interfere with parents’ ability to choose schools that align with their values and with schools’ ability to choose teachers.
The need is dire. Many public schools today are populated by teachers who would rather tear down America’s principles, founders, and history than build on those foundations. Education degree programs soak aspiring teachers in DEI and neo-Marxism—yet such degrees are often required for someone to be “certified” to teach.
At the federal level, three areas are securely within federal purview. These are the District of Columbia, military sites, and Indian education programs. The administration can run patriotic civics and family-first initiatives and show the rest of the country what works.
Additionally, there is no impediment to the Education Department encouraging parents to focus on teaching their children enlightened patriotism and encouraging schools, school districts, and state superintendents to return to high-quality civics. An easy initiative is for state and local officials to follow the federal mandate of featuring Constitution Day programming as robustly as possible. Superintendents can even require it. The Education Department also should ensure that schools and colleges are meeting federal guidelines.
Parents and schools have a responsibility to inculcate civic knowledge, engagement, and patriotic dispositions in students. Role models for the young are extremely valuable to this end. Family policy at the federal level can promote married mother-and-father families who love one another, read to their children, take them to Fourth of July and other patriotic celebrations, go to good museums, and teach our common American heritage. Likewise, schools should be encouraged to do their part.
What If There’s No Education Department?
Everything that the Education Department might do for civil rights and civic education can be done—probably better—without the department. Reformers regularly point out that dismantling the agency does not mean ending its underlying activities. Anti-DEI and other civil rights enforcement fits perfectly at the Department of Justice, for example. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History isn’t going anywhere (although some of its program decision-making appears to need review).
Moral leadership, museums, monuments, and money—inspiration and encouragement far more than mandates—will make the difference as America celebrates in 2026 and beyond.
