The U.S. Department of Education on Monday announced more than $153 million in new grant awards to colleges, universities, and K-12 schools for American history and civics education. 

The grants are awarded through the American History and Civics Seminars Programs and are largely being given to institutions of higher education with independent civics centers and non-profit organizations that are focused on American History and civics education. The effort “underscores the Trump Administration’s commitment to strengthening civics education nationwide,” the department said in a press release. 

“These grants reflect the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to educate and inspire youth toward informed and patriotic citizenship in the lead-up to America’s 250th birthday,” Under Secretary Nicholas Kent said. “We are focused on restoring civics education and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles and rich history in schools across the Nation. To know this great country is to love and cherish it.”

The department specifically made awards to civics institutes at colleges and universities that will conduct expert-led seminars around the Unites States focusing on the nation’s founding documents, constitutional study, historical field experiences, civil discourse, and American achievement, per the agency.

File/Circa 1770: A cartoon published by the writer, scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), urging the colonies to unite and resist British rule. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The department also awarded grants for programs focused on teaching civics and American history in K-12 classrooms.

“One representative project will develop a statewide, open-access Civics Literacy Teaching Toolkit containing recorded seminar content, founding documents, classroom-ready instructional strategy briefs, and exemplary student civics engagement projects,” the department said.

President Donald Trump notably signed an executive order in January called “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” which orders the promotion of patriotic education.

“Parents trust America’s schools to provide their children with a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand,” the order reads. 

“In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.  Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination,” the order continues. “In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics.  In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.”

“These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity,” it reads.