Demand a full, transparent accounting of how the Presidential 1776 Award competition was scored. A 15-year-old Sikh-American student from Connecticut, Aangad Singh, competed in this taxpayer-backed civics contest at the Kennedy Center — and when his family asked the Department of Education for the final scores, they were told the results were "proprietary." That is not how a government-run competition works.
The problems go beyond one family's frustration. There was no live scoreboard. Fellow contestants kept their own tally and believed Aangad had won. Auto-generated subtitles confirmed he gave a correct answer that judges apparently scored wrong. His family emailed the Department of Education twice requesting a review — no response. Meanwhile, one finalist told Trump she wanted to attend Hillsdale College, which donated $10 million to the organizing committee and helped shape its curriculum. Trump offered to write her a recommendation letter on the spot.
When a federally promoted competition withholds its scoring, ignores formal complaints, and rewards a student connected to a major donor institution, the public deserves answers. Demand that the Department of Education release the full scoring records and open an independent review of this competition's judging process.
First sent on July 23 by Jeffrey Barlow
iMessage
Text
