On September 17, 2025, the US Department of Education announced plans to prioritize patriotic education in its discretionary grant programs, initiating a mandatory 30-day public comment period. The American Historical Association (AHA), National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and Organization of American Historians (OAH) jointly encourage our members and other supporters of a full account of history to submit comments to the federal register by October 17, 2025.
Background
On September 17, the US Department of Education proposed a patriotic education funding priority in the Federal Register, inviting members of the public to comment and provide specific feedback to shape implementation of this program. The proposal’s definition of patriotic education emphasizes “the role of faith” and “the influence of Western Civilization, including ancient Greece, Rome, and Judeo-Christianity,” on the “first principles” of American government, promising a “unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of the American founding and foundational principles.” Within hours, the department also announced a partnership with the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, and more than 40 other ideologically aligned organizations for an America 250 Civics Education Coalition.
How You Can Help
Earlier this year, the AHA and the OAH outlined in a statement, endorsed by the NCSS, the damaging effects such a “narrow conception of patriotism and patriotic education” would have on US history education. We encourage members of our organizations and other supporters of public education to submit public comments by October 17, 2025. This is our opportunity to help the Department of Education refine its understanding of what constitutes “an accurate and honest account of American history.”
To submit a public comment:
- You may comment on this issue as an individual, on behalf of an organization, or anonymously, and submissions may be entered using a text box (limit 5,000 characters) or by uploading an attachment by 11:59 p.m. ET on October 17, 2025.
- When drafting your comment, consider the AHA’s recommendations for submitting comments to the Federal Register. In this format, individual responses are far more effective than form letters. We encourage you to focus on one or at most two of the themes outlined below or choose some other aspect of this administration’s approach to patriotic education to develop your own comment.
Public comments about how the Department of Education can tailor this investment to promote student learning might make some of the following points:
Importance of a full and honest history
- Students deserve an honest and full account of US history. This funding priority promises to support the teaching of “accurate and honest” content. We consider this goal profoundly important, and this is why we are concerned about efforts to scrub historical content from federal websites, remove factual signage at historic sites, and attack curatorial decisions at Smithsonian museums, alleging that this history is insufficiently celebratory in its depiction of the United States. A 2024 NCSS and Encourage survey of more than 50,000 students and almost 1,000 educators showed that social studies teachers and their students identified the ability to visit museums and historic sites as a top priority for both groups.
- We do not need to think alike in order to find common purpose; the founders of the United States found common purpose amid multiple conflicts and divisions. The proposed Department of Education priority states that “a shared understanding of our political, economic, intellectual, and cultural history—including our national symbols and heroes” is a prerequisite for informed patriotism. The founding generation of the United States did not have a shared understanding of their history, their symbols, or their heroes; nor have subsequent generations. US patriotism is diverse and multifaceted and it is capacious enough to include even those who are critical and skeptical about patriotism.
- The Department of Education’s rule asserts that there can only be one interpretation of an event, an assertion that runs contrary to the practice of history and the importance of allowing people to engage in civil deliberations. Disagreement also is a strength of our political system and not a flaw. The US Constitution’s First Amendment recognizes this when embracing freedom of assembly, petition, press, religion, and speech.
- Good history instruction opens doors—it invites students to ask compelling questions and encourages intellectual curiosity and supports informed debate. In a recent survey conducted by NCSS and Encourage, 55% of students participating noted that the main benefit of social studies education is “understanding my role as a citizen.”
- This rule narrows the concept of patriotism and patriotic education, with a disproportionate focus on the Founding Era, a period when most Americans could not vote, when many were enslaved, and before the US Constitution explicitly embraced “equal protection.” American history does not stop in 1800, and it should be presented in a way that allows students to explore multiple periods, consider various perspectives, and draw their own informed conclusions.
Teachers are professionals
- Many history and social studies educators already provide a strong foundation for reflective patriotism, including regular teaching of the founding documents. In 2024, the AHA published results from a survey of over 3,000 middle and high school US history educators. This research underscored the point that social studies and history teachers are professionals who are primarily concerned with helping their students learn central elements of our nation’s history. Nearly 100% of the teachers surveyed rated “developing informed citizens for participation in a democratic society” as a goal for their history courses, and 94% identified this as an important or very important outcome.
- As organizations that together represent educators in all 50 states (and their respective school districts), we have consistently supported the idea that states and local education entities are best positioned to develop social studies standards, and we have long defended the intellectual freedom of both students and teachers.
- The teaching of US history should invite discussion, encourage inquiry, and reflect the diverse people, places, and events that shape our shared human experience. A strong social studies education helps students develop the ability to analyze information, engage in meaningful discourse, and contribute thoughtfully to their communities.
America 250
- The commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence must provide opportunities for all Americans to learn from our shared history, one that includes recognition of the complex challenges, aspirations, and struggles across this history to enact a more perfect union.
Western Civilization
- The Declaration of Independence has worldwide significance, and the US Constitution was not solely the derivative of Western political thought. The rule focuses on Western civilization, but the founding of the United States was influenced by multiple historical currents that originated around the world, including classical traditions from the ancient Mediterranean region, European Enlightenment philosophies, and the broader transatlantic context of empire and trade, and Indigenous political beliefs. The founding of the United States occupies a profound and complex place in the larger context of world history, and the rule’s narrow limitation to “Western Civilization” promotes incomplete history and is a disservice to students, to Americans, and to the larger world.
Judeo-Christianity
- The idea of a singular Judeo-Christian tradition stems largely from the cultural politics of the Cold War, when some Protestant Christians sought to include Catholics and Jews in a larger movement to counter the perceived cultural and political influence of nonbelievers. At the time of the nation’s founding and thereafter, political thought and practice in the United States have grown out of diverse intellectual, philosophical, religious, and political traditions. It is both misleading and ahistorical to describe “Judeo-Christianity” as an organizing principle of patriotic education about US history. It not only minimizes the contributions of other religious traditions but also downplays the long history of religious discrimination, division, exclusion, and persecution within diverse worlds that this policy would flatten into a singular tradition.
All comments become part of the public record, and federal regulations require the Department of Education to respond to these submissions. Stand up for history and social studies education. Your voice matters.