Red states are fighting back against decades of leftist indoctrination in schools — and they’re winning.
Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Utah have all passed laws requiring patriotic civic education in recent years, marking a sharp break from the woke curriculum that has dominated American classrooms. The Trump administration’s Department of Education threw its weight behind the movement in 2025, awarding $153 million in grants to promote American history and civics education.
“To know America is to love America,” Education Department Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “When only 1 in 4 of our nation’s eighth graders is proficient in civics, that’s a failure we cannot afford to accept.”
“As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, we have an obligation to renew understanding of the history and ideals that have made our nation exceptional.”
Florida passed a statute in 2025 requiring patriotic education, including mandatory pledge of allegiance and instruction on the Founding documents. The Florida Department of Education now aims to produce students with “an understanding of civic-minded expectations of an upright and desirable citizenry that recognizes and accepts responsibility for preserving and defending the blessings of liberty inherited from prior generations and secured by the United States Constitution.”
Texas launched its 1836 Project through House Bill 2497 around 2022, centering curriculum on American history from pre-colonial times to today. The initiative directly challenges the left’s revisionist history narrative.
“We should ask a simple question: Do our students understand the history, principles, and sacrifices that made 250 years of American freedom possible?”
Read my op-ed on @TXSBOE‘s historic vote shaping the trajectory of Texas education: https://t.co/N9NjV5KfJG#txed#txlegepic.twitter.com/RLQz8AfXrz
— Aaron Kinsey (@AaronKinseyTX) July 1, 2026
Louisiana passed two bills in 2022 establishing Freedom Week in schools and welcoming patriotic organizations that provide civics education. Utah’s 2021 Civic Thought and Leadership Initiative requires universities to host nonpartisan discussions about political topics.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon made the Trump administration’s position clear when she told Education Week that understanding American values and “this country’s exceptional place in world history is the best way to inspire an informed patriotism and love of country.”
Over the past year, around 40 states considered more than 245 bills concerning K-12 civic education, according to CivxNow, a nonprofit that advocates for civic education.
The movement comes as America approaches its 250th birthday in 2026 — a moment red states are seizing to restore pride in the nation’s founding principles.
