Schools are a reflection of culture and national character and should transmit these ideas through the teaching of history and government. Generally considered "civic" instruction, this subject is sorely neglected--an opinion shared by both sides of the partisan divide. A new initiative called Educating for American Democracy (EAD) wants to improve civic education in schools by increasing federal spending and U.S. Department of Education activities; revising state academic standards and civics curricula; and blending progressive priorities, such as climate change, race and class-consciousness, and gender identity, with history and civics. This issue brief discusses why these proposals are not a compromise between conservative and progressive approaches to teaching, but an attempt to expand the federal footprint in education while adding instructional techniques soaked in Critical Pedagogy. Key takeaways include the following: (1) Civics education must be improved, but the plan by the new EAD initiative for more federal activity would do more harm than good; (2) EAD's plan includes more responsibilities for Washington bureaucrats, even though education is a state and local policy concern; and (3) Reform to civic instruction should celebrate America's promise of freedom, and EAD's inclusion of Critical Theory undermines this commitment.