What was designed as a program to showcase youth civics knowledge for the nation’s 250th anniversary has left several families questioning the transparency of federal organizers.
The Presidential 1776 Award competition, organized as part of America’s semi quincentennial celebrations, brought top high school scholars to the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Hosted by Mario Lopez and broadcasted nationally on CBS, the event had state winners competing against one another in a televised quiz show format.
However, the event faced immediate scrutiny behind the scenes regarding how judges calculated the scores.
During the taped broadcast, 15-year-old Connecticut contestant Aangad Singh answered a question regarding federal court jurisdiction under Article III of the U.S. Constitution and the on-screen graphics marked two of his points in red as incorrect, despite the phrases matching the Constitutional text.
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During a subsequent 30-second lightning round, the judges also marked his answer identifying the 13th Amendment as incorrect.
While Angad’s mother did try not to fixate on her son not winning, when several other parents and some fellow contestants who kept tally of the scores also mentioned they believed he would win, she decided to look into the matter instead of waiting until the program broadcasted like her husband had suggested.
When Singh’s parents approached a Department of Education official after the live taping to view the point tally, the official declined, calling the final scores “proprietary.”
As immigrant parents who had immense trust in the American system and passed down the same trust to their son, they did not want to complain. But the outcome shows the growing tensions between trust in national institutions and transparent governance.
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While Singh’s father, Bhalindar, consulted legal counsel and reached out to federal education officials for an official review, the family’s inquiries went unanswered for weeks.
In a statement sent to the family, Chase Forrester, deputy chief of staff for the secretary of education, stated that the questions were evaluated by an independent panel from the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation.
Forrester noted that contest rules dictate the judges’ decisions are final and binding, adding that the broadcast graphics accurately reflected the panel’s interpretations.
Singh has since shifted his focus to local civic advocacy, recently accepting an award from the Connecticut American Legion and speaking to audiences on the importance of constitutional literacy.