Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with thirty-seven Republicans, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asking him to remove the “1619 Project” from federal grant programs. The New York Times’ “1619 Project” is a slavery-focused project that is full of buzzwords and propaganda meant to tear citizens apart and put ill-informed advocacy ahead of historical accuracy.
The Education Department recently proposed a financial grants rule that would encourage schools to incorporate race-centered teachings and learning practices to reflect the “identities, histories, contributions, and experiences of all students.” The rule cites the 1619 Project, as well as Ibram X. Kendi’s best-selling book “How to Be an Antiracist.”
GOP lawmakers argued that the program skews American history and drives the nation towards a politicized and divisive agenda. They asked President Biden’s Education Department to drop the 1619 Project from its list of teaching, adding that the program is full of many “factual and historical errors.” The program even drives the notion that preserving slavery was a primary driver of the American Revolution and that Abraham Lincoln “opposed black equality.”
Gordan Wood, an expert on the American Revolution, shared his hesitancy regarding the New York Times project being taught to children and said he was surprised by the antislavery sentiments made about the revolution.
“I was surprised, as many other people were, by the scope of this thing, especially since it’s going to become the basis for high school education and has the authority of the New York Times behind it, and yet it is so wrong in so many ways,” Wood said.
Others wrote that it is historically inaccurate to claim that colonists wanted independence in order to preserve slaves and that by saying Lincoln opposed black equality is to “deny the very basis of his opposition to slavery.”
The Biden Administration has been seeking to prioritize these American History and Civics Education programs in classrooms around the country, even though they increasingly subject Americans to “a drumbeat of revisionism and negativity about our nation’s history and identity.”
McConnell and other Republicans write that Americans do not want their tax dollars dedicated to promoting radical ideologies meant to divide us and learning that our country is inherently evil. It mentions the “anti-racist math” workshops that have been conducted by the Oregon Department of Education. The programs teach students that “white supremacy shows up in math classrooms” when requiring students to show their work in one way and only focus on getting the ‘right’ answer.
“Young Americans deserve a rigorous understanding of civics and American history. They need to understand both our success and our failures. But acknowledging that America’s journey has been made a work in progress throughout our history cannot mean ignoring the tremendous strides we have made together. Our nation’s youth do not need activist indoctrination that fixates solely on past flaws and splits our nation into divided camps,” the letter reads.
McConnell and House Republicans request that Cardona withdraw the programs from the Proposed Priorities and refocus on civic and American history education that empowers future generations of citizens to continue making America “the greatest force of good in human history.”
Missouri State Representative Nick Schroer has recently introduced House Bill 1141 to bar schools from teaching critical race theory, adding that this is not about ‘white washing’ history, but about ensuring no one taints a factual teaching of American History. Other groups, including the Education Equity Center of St. Louis, also oppose the legislation.
Opposition to slavery and racism has always been an important part of preserving American history. But the idea that racism is inherited and is a permanent condition based on gender, ethnicity, or other contributing characteristics, is just a dangerous ideology. Radical-left ideology.
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