1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

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.