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Pete Hegseth, incoming President Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, will revamp military education to be “patriotic,” blares a terrified Dec. 15 Politico article by Juan Perez Jr.

“Pete Hegseth has pushed for years to steep American education in patriotic principles and Christian theology — and he could implement that vision for thousands of military families,” the article opens.

Politico suggests Hegseth could revamp the Department of Defense Education Activity agency responsible for educating many children in military families. It raises the alarm that Hegseth could “bend a key facet of the education system in his image” by implementing the “patriotic education” of Trump’s 1776 Commission. 

The article paints the DODEA as “a well-regarded school system whose students outperform the rest of the country on federal standardized tests.” The agency that spends $900 billion a year and oversees some 67,000 children also spreads cultural Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion curricula to service members’ children, such as encouraging service members’ children to become transgender without telling their parents. Politico worries Hegseth will disrupt this agency, “install a new chain of command,” and “use federal contracts to marshal consultants” to rewrite curriculum, testing, and teacher training standards.

The DODEA desperately needs an overhaul. While its students do outperform the national average, this is not by much, according to federal data.

Far worse, the Claremont Institute reported last year that the DODEA established a DEI department in 2021 and held an “Equity and Access Summit” in 2022 to plan for pushing gender ideology on students. DODEA has been deceiving military parents and pushing DEI in schools, as The Federalist has reported. The agency celebrated “Pride Month” this year and in 2023.

“DoDEA celebrates our colleagues and friends in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer community, plus anyone not represented by the letters,” reads a press release from this year. The agency published a video in 2023 featuring DODEA staff discussing efforts to push LGBT advocacy in military schools.

“Celebrating Pride Month to me is actually a life-saving activity,” says Danica Allen, a DODEA special education teacher at Kadena Elementary School in Japan, in a 2023 DODEA-branded PR video.

In the video, Bryanne Elliott, another DODEA special education teacher, demands that coworkers be more “open-minded” by using “spouse or partner” instead of “husband.” And Fawne Robinson of DODEA’s human capital management branch tells viewers she wants staff to “learn more about the LGBTQ community” through taxpayer-sponsored government trainings. 

All this reinforces an excerpt the Politico article quotes from Hegseth’s book, Battle for the American Mind: “Almost no school — public or private — seems safe. Conservatives and Christians are surrounded,” Hegseth writes. 

Politico seems concerned Hegseth’s “ideas could then take hold across the country” — and loosen gender activists’ hold on the minds and bodies of servicemembers’ children. But American voters by and large think that would be a good thing. In step with most Americans, Hegseth has long advocated for reforming American schools to keep teachers from pushing critical race theory and gender ideology on students.

The vast majority of Americans agree that schools — especially in the military — should teach patriotism instead of preferred pronouns. Only to outlets like Politico is this a shocking policy position.

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.