Leading organizations, concerned Americans, and faith leaders are speaking out against a dangerous proposal from the U.S Department of Education that seeks to “promote patriotic education,” based on the Trump-Vance administration’s political prescriptive and revisionist definitions. Today, more than 30 organizations and more than 640 individuals organized through Democracy Forward submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Education (Department), urging the withdrawal of its “Promoting Patriotic Education” proposal and to reaffirm the Department’s commitment to a public education system. Interfaith Alliance, a nationwide network of people of diverse faiths who champion civil rights and healthy boundaries between government and religion, separately led the coordination of a letter signed by 19 major religious denominations and organizations.
Each year, the Department awards more than $4.5 billion in funding through competitive grants to support K-12 education throughout the country. These grants are awarded through a competitive process, where outside reviewers score applications based on a framework that is determined, in part, by the priorities set by the administration. After adopting an initial set of priorities in September 2025, the Department recently issued a concerning proposal to adopt the supplemental priority “promote patriotic education” based on the Department’s prescriptive and revisionist definitions.
A comment letter submitted by 34 organizations makes clear that the proposal reflects unprecedented federal overreach into curriculum, is a continuation of censorship efforts, contains ideological bias and distortion of history and may have a chilling effect on inclusive and accurate instruction.
More than 640 supporters of We Hold These Truths, a community of pro-democracy leaders, artists, activists, executives, veterans, lawyers, legal scholars, and elected officials from across the ideological spectrum spoke out against the proposal. Signatories noted that our nation’s strength has always come from the truths America holds to be self-evident: personal freedom, equality, democracy and elections, the rule of law, and separation of powers, and that the proposal runs counter to these enduring truths and democratic principles that govern public education and public life.
The Interfaith Alliance-organized letter focuses on the Department tying the American political tradition to “Judeo-Christianity” and “the role of faith.” Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, and other religious groups reaffirmed their commitment to the country’s religious freedom tradition. “Having no state religion in the United States has empowered religious flourishing,” the comment letter states. “Government promotion of religion will impoverish religion.”
Read the organizational sign-on letter here, the We Hold These Truths supporters’ letter here, and the religious group letter here.
