America 250: The Billionaire War on Public Education

A dark-money campaign to defund schools, silence teachers, and replace democracy with indoctrination.

Folks. This is SERIOUS.

As millions of students return to classrooms this fall, public education faces an unprecedented threat from federal policymakers. The America 250 Civics Education Coalition, launched in September 2025 by the U.S. Department of Education, presents itself as a commemoration of the nation’s 250th birthday. In reality, this campaign, driven by more than 40 conservative organizations and billionaire donors, is the most coordinated attempt in decades to erode the foundational principles of public education.

Please read through all of this critical info. There is a call to action at the end!

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Who Really Runs America 250? Follow the Money

At the coalition’s core is the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), which researchers describe as “the look of a Trump administration in waiting.” AFPI and its political arm raise more than $23 million annually, with nearly one-third coming from a single undisclosed donor. Its board includes billionaire GOP donors, and Trump’s Save America PAC contributed $1 million.

Conflicts of interest deepen the coalition’s credibility crisis. Education Secretary Linda McMahon previously worked for AFPI and received a White House ethics waiver to oversee her former employer’s programs. Her financial disclosure reveals tens of millions in holdings, including Trump Media & Technology Group stock. The Campaign Legal Center filed ethics complaints, warning that such entanglements create “a threat to democracy” because “you don’t know who’s beholden to whom and for what.”

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The Worst of the WORST Are Behind This

The coalition’s membership is a directory of well-financed right-wing groups.

• The Heritage Foundation, architect of Project 2025, seeks to abolish the Department of Education, eliminate Title I funding for high-poverty schools, and rescind civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students.

• Hillsdale College uses millions from anonymous billionaires to spread ultra-conservative “classical” education models.

• Moms for Liberty, labeled an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, fuels book bans and anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns.

The Coors, Koch, DeVos, and Wilks clans have poured millions into this movement. The Coors family alone has contributed at least $2.7 million to Project 2025 groups since 2020. Researchers describe the strategy as “fully integrated,” designed to reshape education nationwide.

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Why Their Ideas Will Devastate America

Research consistently documents the damage these groups inflict when their policies take hold:

• Voucher Programs Fail Students: Peer-reviewed studies show voucher programs lower student achievement. The Economic Policy Institute (2024) concluded they “do not improve student achievement and, hence, are not a cost-effective way to spend additional dollars.” Studies in Louisiana, Indiana, and Ohio found voucher students performed worse than their public-school peers.

• Budget Devastation: Voucher programs create massive costs while draining public schools. Arizona’s program, projected at $65 million, now costs more than $708 million annually—a tenfold underestimate that has driven a state budget crisis.

• Civil Rights Enforcement Gutted: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has lost more than half its workforce under this administration, even as complaints hit record highs. ProPublica found caseloads jumped from 60 to 380 per attorney as offices closed nationwide. Congressional Research Service confirms that Title VI enforcement, which protects students from racial discrimination, depends on adequate OCR staffing.

• Declining Civic Knowledge: NAEP data shows eighth-grade civics scores declined for the first time since testing began in 1998, with only 22% scoring proficient or higher. The National Assessment Governing Board warns these declines leave students unequipped to participate in democratic life.

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Everything is at Stake

If the coalition succeeds, the results will be severe and measurable:

• Defunding Public Schools: The Education Choice for Children Act could divert more than $51 billion annually to private schools: more than the entire federal Title I and special education budgets combined.

• Teacher Shortage Crisis: Union-busting accelerates educator attrition. Research shows states with weaker collective bargaining see higher turnover and greater hiring challenges.

• Widening Achievement Gaps: Voucher research shows the worst outcomes for low-income students and students of color—the very populations these programs claim to serve.

• Civil Rights Protections Lost: With OCR dismantled, discrimination complaints will languish unresolved.

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The Constitutional Crisis

Federal law explicitly prohibits government “direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” in schools. Yet the coalition pushes curriculum mandates that Education Week calls “unprecedented in the U.S.” and “authoritarian.”

The Brookings Institution warns that dismantling civil rights enforcement while promoting ideological curricula is “a rollback of decades of civil rights progress.” Coupled with NAEP’s civics decline, these actions threaten the very democratic foundations public education was meant to protect.

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A Call to Action

The America 250 Civics Education Coalition does not celebrate American democracy—it dismantles it. Backed by billionaire networks and riddled with conflicts of interest, it seeks to replace evidence-based education with propaganda, democratic governance with oligarchic control, and inclusive classrooms with ideological indoctrination.

The evidence is clear: when these groups succeed, students fall behind, teachers leave, and democracy itself erodes.

As historian and educator Diane Ravitch reminds us: “When you destroy public education, you destroy democracy. They grow together, or they perish together.”

Defending our schools now means defending our democratic future and there are easy, powerful ways you can help:

• Join the movement at Defense of Democracy to connect with others fighting extremist attacks on education.

• Stand with teachers through the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

• Submit a public comment by October 17 opposing the America 250 Civics Education program: Submit Here. Here is a sample comment you can work from.