If I were to ask readers to guess where they’d find the nation’s best K-12 public schools, they might not immediately think of the Defense Department’s educational system, but that would be an important oversight. As The New York Times reported in late 2023, “With about 66,000 students — more than the public school enrollment in Boston or Seattle — the Pentagon’s schools for children of military members and civilian employees quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of.”
The Times’ report added, “On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that is considered the gold standard for comparing states and large districts, the Defense Department’s schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year and managed to avoid widespread pandemic losses.”
With a record like this, it stands to reason that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would know not to mess with success. Alas, the former Fox News host has adopted a very different approach.
Less than two weeks after Hegseth took the oath of office, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon had begun “restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology.” The article added, “The prohibited list also includes a bundle of instructional materials created for sixth-graders for Black History Month and a biography about Albert Cashier, a transgender man who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.” On-base school libraries have also been directed to remove books from shelves that don’t meet with Team Trump’s approval.
The developments were not well received. HuffPost reported soon after that more than two dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, denounced Hegseth’s “escalating censorship” and urged the Cabinet secretary to reverse course.
“We are alarmed by reports that children at DoD schools were prevented from accessing any library books and many learning materials for a week while officials conducted a ‘review’ to identify any books that are related to the mysterious bodies of thought you call ‘discriminatory equity ideology’ or ‘gender ideology,’” they said. “After this week-long review, the nation’s military schools began purging library books and restricting access to books and learning materials that are reportedly undergoing ‘further review.’”
“You are plainly violating the constitutional rights of DoD families,” the Democratic lawmakers added.
Just as notable, if not more so, was the reaction from some of the affected students. Military.com reported late last week:
“We Will Not Be Silent,” read one sign. “Our Education Is Not a Threat,” read another. Both messages were lofted by high school students, part of a group of roughly 100 who had walked out of their high school in Germany this month to protest books being banned and class courses being scrapped. … Walkouts have happened at Defense Department schools in Japan, South Korea and Germany.
If you’ve watched “The Rachel Maddow Show” in recent weeks, you know we’ve been reporting quite a bit on Americans stepping up and speaking out in opposition to Trump administration policies. But when students organize a walkout at an on-base DOD high school, there’s a qualitative difference to keep in mind.
As the Military.com report added, “At a public school, the protest might have led to a detention and maybe some revoked after-school privileges. But on a military base, the students were putting more on the line. The same officials in charge of their Department of Defense-run school also had authority over their parents’ careers and status in the military.”
These students followed through on their protest anyway. Complicating matters, the problem isn’t limited to books and learning materials: The Military.com report went on to note that students and military families also recently learned that school sporting events had been canceled “because they were not deemed essential under Trump’s executive order seeking to implement Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, spending cuts. “Other school activities were also squeezed. Students on a culinary career track at their school weren’t able to practice cooking because of new $1 credit card limits for staff, preventing the school from buying ingredients and forcing kids to ask their parents to donate food.” In early February, NBC News reported that military families protesting the Defense Department’s anti-DEI push “heckled” Hegseth upon his arrival at U.S. European Command headquarters in Germany, where he faced booing from some who lived at the base. “Protests by military families against a defense secretary are extremely rare,” the report added. Protests by military students are rare, too, though they’re apparently becoming more common.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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