In 1947, a young Morehouse College student named Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an article titled The Purpose of Education. In it, he said, “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” Nearly 80 years later, as the nation once again finds itself tangled in debates over what should be taught, to whom, and why, we are compelled to revisit that question with greater urgency: What is the point of education today?

We are in a moment where education is being politicized rather than prioritized. Curriculum is being contested not to sharpen understanding, but to dull it. Funding is being withheld, not due to scarcity, but due to strategy. As of July 10, 2025, the Department of Education is sitting on nearly $7 billion in after-school programming, money that could be helping students, but instead is caught in the inertia of leadership that forgets its fundamental purpose: to serve children. Not ideology. Not talking points. But children.

Let me be clear: states, not the federal government, have always been in charge of education. Yet this administration is weaponizing that fact to deflect from its own abdication of responsibility. The Department of Education should be ensuring that states are providing the best resources possible and that they are following the law. Period.

And while that crisis brews at the federal level, others have taken aim at the heart of the classroom. Organizations like Moms for Liberty claim to stand for freedom while working to suppress the teaching of African American history, dismantle DEI initiatives, and ban books that confront the realities of race and power in this country. Their name is not only misleading—it is a distortion of everything liberty truly represents. Their platform does not liberate. It controls. It does not protect children. It restricts them from knowing the full truth. Worse, their rhetoric is drawn directly from a playbook of division, echoing figures like Charlie Kirk and others who monetize outrage, stoke cultural panic, and weaponize patriotism into a tool of exclusion.

PragerU operates in that same ecosystem. It produces slick, manipulative videos that masquerade as historical education while downplaying slavery, colonialism, and American injustice. This is not education. It is indoctrination. It is not teaching. It is training children to ignore the truth and fear complexity. PragerU is a manipulative & hypocritical “history” brand that poisons the story of America and profits from our national confusion. Like the United Daughters of the Confederacy once did, they are rewriting the record for their own gain.

If this feels familiar, it should. There is a long history of manipulating education to serve political ends. After the Civil War, the United Daughters of the Confederacy reshaped textbooks across the South, embedding the Lost Cause narrative and ensuring generations grew up believing myths about “states’ rights” while erasing the centrality of slavery. Today, we are watching the same playbook being dusted off and reused, only now it is being livestreamed, monetized, and algorithmically reinforced.

When we miseducate our people, we do not just fail to tell the truth. We build a society unable to function in it. A society where people debate whether the Civil War was about slavery. A society where citizens lack the historical literacy to understand their government, their rights, or the roots of injustice. We must break this cycle, not with silence, but with clarity.

Education, at its best, is not neutral. It is purposeful. It is rooted in truth, aimed at justice, and designed for the future. Classrooms should serve as spaces of possibility, not political warzones. Our students are not pawns in a culture war. They are the next authors of our national story.

So let us ask the harder questions: What do we expect of our schools? What do we expect of ourselves as citizens? Are we willing to get involved, not just when cameras are rolling or when our own children are affected, but consistently, courageously, and collectively?

Education should prepare students to live, to lead, and to listen. Its purpose is not just knowledge but clarity. Not just college but conscience. Not just performance but purpose.

As we gear up for the 2025-2026 school year, I write this not just as an educator, but as someone who still believes in the promise of this country and in the power of its schools to shape a better future. Our classrooms are not arenas for political theater or breeding grounds for fear. They are sacred incubators of the future, not battlegrounds of the past, and where democracy is passed on, not by chance, but by choice. To every school board member, every legislator, every parent, every teacher, every Department of Education staffer, and to the President of the United States, I say this plainly: If we still believe in democracy, then we must fight for the education that makes it possible. We must no longer trade truth for comfort or policy for propaganda. Education must be rooted in intelligence, strengthened by character, and driven by purpose. That is the work. That is the charge. That is the fight. As the late Congressman John Lewis said in 1963 during the quest for civil rights, “Get in—and stay in.”