President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, has faced a barrage of criticism over allegations of sexual assault and alcohol abuse. But another aspect that has long raised alarms among military experts is his stated desire to use the military as a means of spreading Christian nationalism around the world — a mission at odds with both the Constitution's freedom of religion amendment and the military's non-ideological purpose.
There's a lesser-known program tucked into the military system that would enable Hegseth to advance this goal, Politico reported on Monday: namely, the Department of Defense Education Activity agency, which is in charge of running schools for kids whose parents are serving in the military and live on bases. This program educates around 67,000 kids — and the GOP had longed to change how it works for years.
Should Hegseth survive his rocky confirmation, "he will have the opportunity to bend a key facet of the education system in his image. It would also be a way to resurrect the 'patriotic education' blueprint Trump advanced during his first term and set an example Republican-led states can follow," reported Juan Perez Jr. Indeed, right-wing education scholar Max Eden has made this point before, stating, “The federal government does have control over one major school district’s curriculum — that can be a model for our nation.”
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Hegseth, who has long wanted more religion in government life and once urged Christian kids to come to school with Bibles to argue against same-sex marriage, would theoretically be able to alter the military school program to inject Christian nationalist principles, teaching kids to advocate for America to be ruled under Christian law — which would in turn enable like-minded leaders in red states to try to push local school districts to adopt similar instruction.
All of this comes at a time when Trump's supporters are increasingly calling for Congress to abolish the Department of Education, an agency whose primary purpose is to enforce civil rights in public schools and give kids access to financing to go to college.
It also comes after years of efforts by far-right groups like Moms for Liberty to censor information kids can receive in schools around the country, pushing for the removal of books with LGBTQ or racial topics from school libraries — an effort Trump has publicly endorsed.
