A Florida mother of three is using the approaching America 250 celebration to draw a line: her children will learn to love their country, not apologize for it — and the numbers say she's right to worry.
With only 13 percent of eighth-graders testing proficient in U.S. history and just 22 percent proficient in civics according to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the education establishment is producing a generation that couldn't explain the Constitution if their liberty depended on it — and it might. Forty percent of eighth-graders scored below basic in history, up from 34 percent in 2018. The trend is accelerating.
Writing in the Daily Caller, the millennial mom — married to a legal immigrant from Paraguay — argued that America 250, the upcoming 250th anniversary of the nation's founding on July 4, 2026, is a chance to reverse the damage. "When Founding Fathers are portrayed more as villains than visionaries, we risk raising up leaders who are disconnected from the founding principles of this country," she wrote. Her husband's family came from Paraguay with "little more than determination and hope," took no handouts, and built a life through honest labor — the kind of story classrooms used to teach.
Gallup polling backs her up. Only 41 percent of Gen Z adults say they are extremely or very proud to be American, compared to 58 percent of millennials and higher numbers among older generations. Many young people now describe America as an unfair society requiring "significant change."
Florida is moving to fix the problem from the ground up, hosting events and initiatives that emphasize real history, civic pride, and entrepreneurship. Groups like Moms for Liberty are partnering with Freedom 25 to push the effort nationally.
Meanwhile, the establishment press had other priorities. The New York Post and CNN devoted their coverage to the latest chapter of U.S. entanglement in the Middle East — White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner heading to Doha for talks on the Iran cease-fire, maritime traffic crawling through the Strait of Hormuz, and vague agreements giving Tehran a formal role in managing a waterway critical to global oil supplies. CNN reported that commercial ships now face a grim choice: use an Iranian-controlled route and risk Western sanctions, or use alternate routes and risk being attacked. Neither outlet connected the foreign policy picture to the domestic one — a generation of Americans too civically illiterate to evaluate whether these overseas commitments serve their interests.
The question isn't just whether kids can name the branches of government. It's whether a nation that won't teach its own founding principles to its children can sustain the self-governance those principles were designed to protect. America 250 will test the answer.
