Hello from Kalyn, Erica, and Norah on Chalkbeat’s national desk. The United States marks its 250th birthday next summer, and teachers will be tasked with helping students understand the significance of this moment. Today’s big story looks at how the Trump administration is trying to put its own stamp on civics education, a change that ties into long-running debates about what students need to know to be informed and engaged citizens. 

How are you thinking about marking the semiquincentennial? Do you have a cool lesson plan or project in mind? Does this moment feel celebratory or fraught or both? What questions do you have? Let us know by responding to this email or writing to national@chalkbeat.org. 

The big story

A tour guide explains a painting of the Declaration of Independence to tourists in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

As America’s 250th birthday approaches next July, educators see lots of ways the commemoration could serve as a springboard for U.S. history and civics lessons.

Jessica Ellison, of the National Council for History Education, envisions helping teachers highlight figures such as Mary Katharine Goddard, who bravely printed the Declaration of Independence.

Melissa Gibson, of Milwaukee Roots, wants to help connect the “poetry of our founding documents” and “people’s lived reality” for local students.

And Paul Carrese, of the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University, wants to adapt his center’s existing teaching training that focuses on key historical events and people from the country’s founding, but also stresses “civic virtues” like healthy debates.

All three are hoping their ideas will earn a piece of a new $14 million history and civics education program that the Trump administration launched in connection with the semiquincentennial. The Education Department says it will fund teacher training that cultivates “citizen competency and informed patriotism” with a focus on “the first principles of the Founding” and how they’ve developed over time. 

The money is coming from Biden-era history and civics grants that the Trump administration ended early, saying they constituted “illegal DEI programming.” That program focused on serving students from low-income families and promoted educational equity.

Who the Education Department decides to fund could say a lot about the president’s emphasis on a more patriotic and positive version of America that’s put its most challenging times behind it. 

It could also illuminate differences in how liberals and conservatives tend to view civics education. Liberals often envision public policy and civic discourse, while conservatives think about respect for traditions and historical moments like the Constitutional Convention, said David Griffith of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank.

Young people need both, Griffith said, but striking the right balance is difficult.

Read the full story here.

More national stories

The Trump administration restored more than $5 billion in withheld education spending after a widespread outcry. Superintendents said they were at a critical decision point for the coming school year, with contracts and staff positions on the line if their districts didn’t get money soon for teacher training, migrant student support, English learners and enrichment programs. The fight may not be over: Trump’s 2026 budget proposal calls for these funding streams to be eliminated and replaced by a single, much smaller block grant.

A Vermont superintendent whose district adopted sanctuary policies was detained on his way home from visiting family in Nicaragua. Wilmer Chavarria, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said his experience underscores the need for districts serving diverse students to adopt clear policies defending them. He fears student data may have been compromised when he was forced to turn over personal and district-issued devices to Customs and Border Patrol agents.

Advocates are looking for new ways to pay for more electric school buses as federal priorities change. Replacing diesel-fueled buses is a pricey endeavor, with electric buses running $300,000 or more apiece, compared to about $100,000 for a traditional bus. The benefits could include better grades as students are exposed to less air pollution.

Sweeping cuts to environmental justice funding are hitting nonprofits that serve low-income communities hard and forcing them to scale back youth programs. In New York City, for example, after the nonprofit El Puente lost a $3 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, it had to scrap plans for a leadership training program for middle and high schoolers that was set to help students advocate for better air quality and climate resilience in their neighborhoods.

Local stories to watch

New teachers gather at LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. Nearly 12% of the city's educators are Teaching Fellows, a program that offers a fast-track path into the classroom for career changers and recent college grads. (Michael Elsen-Rooney / Chalkbeat)

• Philadelphia is revamping its civics curriculum at the same time Pennsylvania is launching a bipartisan effort to beef up state civics requirements. Students in this swing state must pass a civics test to graduate high school, but it’s up to districts to determine what’s on the test. The Philadelphia district says it wants to produce students who “think critically and act responsibly,” but civics teachers say more funding is needed. 
• Indiana’s request for more flexibility in how it spends federal funds would steer money away from low-performing schools. Indiana is among a number of states asking to consolidate multiple federal funding streams into a single block grant. The state’s plan includes taking money from competitive school improvement grants and giving that money to any school that is “actively seeking to serve students that would have otherwise enrolled in the eligible school.” The idea is not to abandon efforts to improve schools, state officials said, but to ensure students have access to better options while that work continues. 
• Participants in the New York City Teaching Fellows program say they haven’t been paid, leaving them struggling to afford bus fare and food. The program has been an important source of new teachers as the city tries to comply with lower class-size mandates and an important pipeline for teachers of color. The bad experiences of this year’s class — “I love this work, but I didn’t sign up to be exploited,” one fellow said — increase the risk they won’t continue in the teaching profession.
• New Jersey law now requires that schools give parents more information ahead of an IEP meeting. Previously, schools only had to provide parents with the time, location, and purpose of the meeting, as well as a list of who would be there. Now schools have to provide parents with a written agenda describing what will be discussed at least two days in advance. The goal is to allow parents time to process the information and think about what questions and comments they have.

A child takes a break from swimming on a hot afternoon at the Astoria Pool in Queens, New York. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

It’s a myth that our long summer break has agrarian origins. Historically, rural children went to school in the winter and summer. They were more often out of school in the spring and the fall, when their families needed help with planting and harvesting. Urban children typically attended school year round. 

Summer vacation developed as public health campaigners wanted to reduce urban children’s exposure to diseases that flared up in the summer months. Wealthy and even middle class families would leave the sweltering city entirely for the countryside. Evolving ideas about childhood also led reformers to say students needed time off to just play. 

A late 19th century push to standardize the school calendar led to the system we have today. But there’s still significant regional variation. Schools in the South tend to resume classes in early August. In the Northeast and upper Midwest, it’s more common for school to start after Labor Day — a few states even mandate it. 

According to Pew Research Center, about 5% of school districts head back to school basically now — late July or early August. About 70% of students are in school by late August and the rest return by early September. 

More recently, hotter summers produced by climate change have prompted some school systems to push back their start dates. At the same time, some schools are starting earlier than ever, in part to allow for more breaks during the school year.

School calendars continue to be influenced by local customs. Some Maine schools observe a three- to four-week fall recess so that students can help with the potato harvest. Many rural Pennsylvania schools close on the Monday after Thanksgiving for “Deer Day,” maintaining the tradition even after the state moved the first day of hunting season to Saturday. 

Boston schools close for Marathon Monday, which coincides with Patriots’ Day, a Massachusetts state holiday commemorating the first battles of the American Revolution. Tucson schools close for two days in February so that students can participate in rodeo. 

Brooklyn and Queens students for decades took off the first Thursday in June for Brooklyn-Queens Day, a holiday that commemorates the opening of the first Sunday school on Long Island. It’s now celebrated citywide as Anniversary Day or Chancellor’s Day. Sadly, teachers still have to work.

That’s the year then-President Bill Clinton stood in the Rose Garden and declared that child care was essential to the nation’s economy. Decades later, child care remains largely the responsibility of individual families, rather than being viewed as a public good. 

Family policy expert Elliot Haspel recently spoke with The Hechinger Report about his new book “Raising a Nation,” why we keep having the same child care policy debates, and why everyone should care about child care, whether they have children or not.

That was Dr. Tashara M. Leak speaking with our colleague at Healthbeat about why she created the Advanced Cooking Education after-school club. The group has helped seventh and eighth graders in New York City, many of whom live in single-parent homes or have parents who work long shifts, develop culinary skills and learn about careers in food and nutrition.

The program sends kids home with groceries so they can complete cooking labs at home, which exposes them to new ingredients and helps them learn about the cultural significance of different dishes. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently canceled Leak’s funding, leaving her scrambling to find alternative funding to finish out the school year.

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