Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE Trump administration announced on September 17 the launch of a civics education coalition that includes the Education Department and more than 40 partner groups, all of which are closely aligned with the president’s Make America Great Again movement.
One of the groups is the America First Policy Institute, a Trumpaligned nonprofit where Education Secretary Linda McMahon worked before joining the president’s cabinet, says a New York Times report.
An Education Department spokeswoman said that no federal funds were being spent on the coalition and that McMahon had signed an ethics waiver, allowing her to participate despite the conflict of interest.
The America 250 Civics Education Coalition includes mostly tax-exempt nonprofits, which are prohibited under the federal tax code from engaging in political campaign activity. Still, many of these types of groups — including those aligned with both Democrats and Republicans — generally support a partisan agenda by advancing specific policies rather than particular politicians.
In 2022, when he announced his 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to strip federal funding from schools that promoted what he called “radical civics.” In another campaign speech, he criticized a bipartisan proposal to expand civics education in America. As president, he has repeatedly signaled his interest in boosting civics in America as a way to promote more “patriotic education” across the country. He has said his administration will strip funding from schools that stray from those themes.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration redirected $137 million from programs for minorities and teacher training to spend on American history and civics education, which was in addition to $23 million that Congress had previously authorized.
