Donald Trump has vowed to ensure a “patriotic” history curriculum gets taught in every public school in the United States and to withhold federal funds from school districts that permit the teaching of “woke” ideas. Seventeen Republican controlled state governments have already passed laws restricting how racism and gender are discussed in schools. However, a recent New York Times article, “Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools,” argued it will be difficult for Trump and Republican-controlled states to achieve their goals because curriculum in the United States varies from state-to-state and district-to-district and guidelines are often very broad and hardly every enforced. The Times story was largely based on interviews with three teachers, a social studies teacher from Roff, Oklahoma, an 11th-grade United States history teacher from El Paso, Texas, and a social studies teacher from South Burlington, Vermont. All three felt that they have curriculum freedom in their classrooms.

Unfortunately, the Times article badly misunderstood the underlying problem confronting teachers. To avoid being targeted by rightwing thought police, teachers, especially new teachers and teachers without union protection will self-censor and restrict what and how they teach. No one wants to be attacked on Fox News, in local media, or at school board meetings. The author of the article claims “many teachers say those efforts have little influence on how they run their classrooms,” but the three teachers cited are very untypical. All are teaching in their school district for more than ten years and are involved with national teacher organizations that offers them credibility and a level of protection.

In October-November 2023, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll of 2,500 working K-12 teachers. Forty-one percent responded that heated curriculum debates were having a negative impact on their ability to do their jobs as teachers and seventy-one percent of teachers interviewed said that teachers don’t have enough influence over what’s taught in public schools.

At the end of his first term, Donald Trump banned federal agencies from providing diversity training that hinted at positions about American history presented in The 1619 Project, positions Trump called “toxic” and “anti-American” propaganda. He also created the 1776 Commission to promote “patriotic education.” When he took office, President Biden dissolved the 1776 Commission and removed its report from the White House website, but we can expect Trump to reinstate the commission and its recommendations of something similar. Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education is best known as the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, however, she was also the cofounder and chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a conservative research group, that advocates for “patriotic social studies standards such as American Birthright from National Association of Scholars, the 1776 Curriculum from Hillsdale College, and the Little Patriots Curriculum from American Cornerstone Institute.”

According to the Pew poll, teachers have a very different view than the Trump team about what should be taught about topics like slavery. Sixty-four percent of teachers believe students should learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in American society today including a majority of elementary, middle and high school teachers. Fewer than 1/4th of the teachers polled thought students should learn that slavery is part of American history but no longer affects the position of Black people in American society and only 8% thought students shouldn’t learn about this topic in school.

The Times article did acknowledge that organizations like the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History have “tweaked” language in their curriculum to comply with restrictive state laws and under pressure from rightwing groups, the College Board made “contemporary events like the Black Lives Matter movement, reparations, and mass incarceration . . . optional topics” in its piloted African American Studies course of study that would not be included on AP exams. Florida banned the course for “lacking educational value” and violating the state’s 2022 “Stop WOKE” Act. In addition, K-12 schools can be sued and teachers risk losing their licenses if they violate curriculum restrictions and to ensure college students don’t accidentally learn about racism in American society, the presidents of Florida’s state universities and community are required to eliminate any academic requirements or programs “that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”

At the end of the Times article, the author did quote a former Florida middle school social studies teacher who quit when the state mandated that middle school civics lessons include “the influence of the Judeo-Christian tradition” on the American founding, something that students would be tested on and teachers would be evaluated based on student test scores. A 2021 Rand Corporation survey of nearly 1,000 former public school teachers found that stress was “the most common reason for leaving public school teaching.” Expect teacher stress and exiting the profession to skyrocket if Donald Trump is able to launch his school agenda.