The Department of Education (ED) on Wednesday announced a historic partnership with Turning Point USA to help with nationwide civics education as America approaches its 250th birthday.
Although the partnership was already in the works prior to the assassination of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, the effort is now more critical than ever, organization leaders said at a press conference announcing the decision. The America 250 Civics Education Coalition will feature more than 40 other organizations, including Hillsdale College, America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and Moms for Liberty.
“As we approach the semiquincentennial in 2026, we face a sobering reality: civic knowledge, engagement, and constitutional literacy among our youths, I’m going to say it’s in decline, I can almost say it is absent,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said at the press conference. “We have to really refocus on this.”
McMahon referenced a recent poll that found that less than half of Gen Z is proud to be American. A study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that more than 70% of Americans failed a basic civic literacy quiz.
The coalition will provide resources to teachers, parents, homeschool educators, churches and others for civic literacy education, including toolkits and videos from some of the coalition’s partners. The coalition’s mission is “to reignite the fires of patriotism, strengthen civic literacy, and inspire Americans of all ages to understand and cherish our founding principles.”
The coalition’s motto is “Know America. Love America.”
“It is critical that we educate our students on the true history of our country,” Erika Donalds, chair of AFPI’s Center for Education Opportunity, said at the conference. “If our students truly understood the Constitution of the United States, they would never think to say that violence in response to speech would be okay.”
A recent report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released just a day before Kirk’s assassination found that about a third of college students believe that violence is an acceptable way to stop a campus speech they disagree with.
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