A conservative advocacy organization is calling for a sweeping overhaul of America's service academies and war colleges, arguing the institutions have drifted too far toward civilian academia and urging Congress to permanently codify recent Pentagon-directed military education reforms into law.
The 12-page blueprint from Restoration of America proposes reshaping admissions, curriculum, faculty and governance around what its authors describe as a warfighting-first mission. The organization is sharing the proposal with lawmakers and administration officials in hopes legislation will ultimately institutionalize recommendations that include permanent bans on considering race, ethnicity or sex in admissions decisions.
What the Right Is Saying
Truax argued the nation's military academies gradually adopted the culture and priorities of civilian universities during previous administrations, shifting attention away from preparing officers for combat.
"We have to take our opportunity when we have power to put this into law," Truax said. "Otherwise, we'll look back and be like, well, we had that one little moment where it was getting better, but now we're right back where we were." He said executive orders can be reversed by future administrations, making statutory changes the only way to ensure the reforms endure.
The blueprint calls for requiring at least 75% of coursework to focus directly on military competencies and warfighting, replacing most civilian professors with active-duty or retired military officers and abolishing tenure at military educational institutions. It also recommends ending academy participation in the Rhodes Scholarship program, arguing that the military's top young officers should spend their formative years leading troops rather than pursuing prestigious overseas academic fellowships.
Truax said he believes the officer corps has spent too much time learning to think like "politicians, State Department employees and military contractors" instead of warriors — a theme echoed throughout the blueprint.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive critics argue that senior military education exists to prepare future generals and admirals for strategic leadership rather than tactical command alone. Retired Army officer Bradford Duplessis wrote in a March essay published by War on the Rocks that "the cult of lethality approach, characterized by its focus on tactical warfighting at the expense of strategic study, will not produce senior military leaders with the necessary skills and attributes to effectively lead in today's complex environment."
Duplessis argued that "the removal of civilian faculty from the war colleges would result in brain drain in vital areas where military officers possess little to no experience or education." He wrote that senior officers must understand diplomatic, political and other instruments of national power beyond pure military force.
"The expectation is that they're generating warfighters, not philosophers and future bureaucrats," Restoration of America founder Doug Truax told Fox News Digital. "We pay a lot for these academies... and the expectation is that they're generating warfighters."
What the Numbers Show
A Pentagon review already has led to measurable changes at both West Point and the Naval Academy. During a March 26, 2025 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, service academy superintendents testified that West Point eliminated two elective courses: "Race, Ethnicity and Nation" and "Power and Difference." The Naval Academy canceled two courses, "Gender Matters" and "Gender Sexuality Studies," while modifying an additional 18 courses as part of the Pentagon-directed review.
West Point disbanded a dozen cadet clubs centered on race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation to comply with anti-diversity, equity and inclusion directives. The Coast Guard also announced it is ending race-based admissions for its officer commissioning program under the Trump administration's DEI crackdown.
The Bottom Line
The blueprint represents one of the most comprehensive conservative proposals for military education reform since President Donald Trump returned to office. While executive actions have already produced concrete changes at the academies — eliminating courses and disbanding clubs — restoration advocates argue those gains are fragile without congressional action.
Critics contend that stripping civilian faculty and narrowing curriculum could undermine strategic thinking among senior officers who will eventually advise civilian leadership on complex national security challenges. Whether Congress will take up legislation remains unclear, but the debate over military education's purpose is expected to continue as both sides seek to define what qualities America's future military leaders need most.