Fox News props up wild new theory that Democrats are trying to kill cursive so the Constitution is illegible

Worry not, our fellow Americans — while President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance bully a world leader whose country is at war in the Oval Office, and Elon Musk‘s DOGE runs roughshod over American democracy, Fox & Friends hosts have their priorities in line: The state of America’s school children’s handwriting.

In a recent segment, Fox & Friends hosts Rachel Campos-Duffy mentions an Idaho bill that would require cursive to be taught in school. And if that’s really what conservatives want, it’s almost like there needs to be a federal department to keep track of these things. We could call it the Department of Education.

But as everyone knows, cursive use has been on the decline for years, much like how paper and pencils are used far less often in the digital age than they used to be. Well, everyone knows that except Campos-Duffy.

She said on the air, “So you guys, I didn’t realize this is a generational thing. I talked to our producers, who are a lot younger than us. And they said some of them don’t write in cursive, and they don’t even know how.” Apparently, Campos-Duffy only just started talking to folks under 50.

It’s all part of that liberal agenda

Latest wacky conspiracy theory from Fox News:,… Democrats conspiring to end cursive writing,… so kids can't read Constitution https://t.co/vJBCyPS6F5

— Roshan Rinaldi (@Roshan_Rinaldi) March 3, 2025

Idaho’s new bill mandates that all public school students be proficient in cursive by Grade 5. Fox & Friends Weekend hosts put their cursive skills to the test – do you think kids should still learn cursive? @RCamposDuffy @CharlesHurt @pdoocy pic.twitter.com/bEmHbxLCX4

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) March 2, 2025

Here’s where Campos-Duffy’s cohost Charles Hurt chimes in with this zinger, “But you know, one of my favorite conspiracy theories, and I kind of believe it, is that the reason Democrats don’t want people to learn how to write cursive is so they can’t read the actual Constitution.”

Peter Doocy also wasted no time criticizing President Biden’s cursive handwriting, which, according to him, is pretty bad (there goes that generational argument), and praising Trump’s. “He’s old school,” Hurt added.

A lack of cursive education could make the Constitution in the original document, or anything else written in cursive, for that matter, difficult to read, but the assertion that Democrats are trying to kill off cursive to keep kids from reading the Constitution or Declaration of Independence on purpose is laughable.

With Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship as outlined in the Constitution, the only person Doocy, Campo-Duffy, and Hurt should be worried about whether or not they’ve read the Constitution is Trump.

The fight for cursive in schools

A New Jersey lawmaker wants students to learn cursive, because “that’s how they wrote the Constitution.” pic.twitter.com/npPmVbrEc3

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 10, 2019

The good and bad of cursive’s decline have been noted before, and Idaho isn’t the only state to try and mandate it get taught in schools as it’s no longer required at the federal level, as Fox News reported two years ago. Back in 2019, The Daily Show also reported that a New Jersey lawmaker wanted to bring it back because “that’s how they wrote the Constitution.”

These days, nearly half of all U.S. states require it again. Even California, that Democrat-led liberal stronghold, according to Education Week.

And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, as California-based neuroscientist Claudia Aguirre told the BBC this year, “more and more neuroscience research is supporting the idea that writing out letters in cursive, especially in comparison to typewriting, can activate specific neural pathways that facilitate and optimise overall learning and language development,” she said.

But that said, the jury is out on whether cursive is any more or less beneficial than any other kind of penmanship education. And while it’s certainly important to teach kids to write by hand, even still, whether it’s cursive or some other kind of handwriting, leaves us wondering: Should we also bring back parchment paper, quill, and ink?