The Trump administration has announced the “America 250 Civics Education Coalition,” a partnership between the Department of Education and a raft of right-wing organizations, many of whom have a history of anti-LGBTQ+ views.

Dr. Hutz H. Hertzberg, the Chief Education Officer of Turning Point Education/USA, one of the coalition’s partners, said as part of the announcement that they were “more resolved than ever to advance God-centered, virtuous education for students flourishing across our nation.”

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The America 250 Civics Education Coalition is a partnership made up of only right-wing political groups, suggesting a deeper agenda than merely supporting civics education (which normally covers how the government works as well as citizens’ rights and responsibilities). Other bipartisan groups already exist for supporting civics education in the United States, such as CivxNow, a spin-off from iCivics, which was founded by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 2009.

The effort is being spearheaded by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. In her role as education secretary, McMahon has been Trump’s hand for enforcing anti-LGBTQ+ policies in schools. She has threatened legal action over including trans children in school sports, suggested trans-friendly bathroom policies violate Title IX, and investigated California’s law against forced outing of trans students.

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Prior to her role in the government, McMahon helped to found the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), one of the key partners in the new coalition. AFPI has attacked what it calls “radical gender ideology,” fought to keep LGBTQ+ education out of schools’ curricula, opposes gender-affirming care for minors, pushed to keep trans kids out of sports, and more.

Another partner organization for the coalition is the Heritage Foundation. The group has a long history of pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and was a crucial player in the creation of Project 2025, the Christian Nationalist blueprint to consolidate the president’s executive authority during his second term. Most recently, the Heritage Foundation pressured the FBI to create a new domestic terror threat category for “Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violence and Extremism” (TIVE).

The so-called parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty (M4L) has also signed on to McMahon’s coalition. The group has sought to censor LGBTQ+ topics, issues of race, and the history of slavery from school lesson plans and books, and the group is one of the driving forces behind recent book bans in the US.

Many of the rest of the 41 partner organizations have similar records.

Hillsdale College is a Christian college that urged the “destruction of same-sex marriage” and is regularly ranked one of the worst schools for LGBTQ+ people. The Christian Nationalist legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom has opposed same-sex marriage, fought against trans children’s right to participate in sports, and regularly support anti-LGBTQ+ filings and individuals in court proceedings. Additionally, PragerU has a history of pushing lesson plans and programming filled with anti-LGBTQ+ content and released Detrans in 2023, a short film claiming to represent the “dangers” of gender-affirming care.

The announcement of the America 250 Civics Education Coalition is timed for the 250-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. It also comes several months after President Trump announced efforts to dismantle the Department of Education in an executive order where he called for Federal assistance to be terminated for “illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

At this time, the coalition’s plans are nebulous, as they reportedly had their first meeting in mid-September, but they promise a “robust programming agenda, including the Fundamental Liberties College Speaker series and a 50-state speaking tour.”

There are no announced plans for them to create curricula for schools, as that right is reserved for the states, not the Department of Education, which can only influence such things by issuing guidance and threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply with their demands.

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