A group of 20 state attorneys general challenged President Joe Biden on Wednesday not to implement education proposals that promote critical race theory and the “1619 Project” in public schools.
“As the chief legal officers of our respective states, we write to express our deep concerns with the proposed priorities recently issued by the United States Department of Education (‘Department’). The proposed priorities are a thinly veiled attempt at bringing into our states’ classrooms the deeply flawed and controversial teachings of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project,” the letter reads.
Led by Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the attorneys general wrote, “The Department should not adopt the proposed rule or, at a minimum, should make clear that grants may not fund projects that are based on CRT, including any projects that characterize the United States as irredeemably racist or founded on principles of racism (as opposed to principles of equality) or that purport to ascribe character traits, values, privileges, status, or beliefs, or that assign fault, blame, or bias, to a particular race or to an individual because of his or her race.”
The attorneys general added, “Congress made clear that the purpose of the programs is to advance a traditional understanding of American history, civics, and government.”
The letter also stated, “The proposed priorities would do little to advance that goal and, based on the proposal’s support for the ‘1619 Project,’ would endorse teaching factually deficient history.”
“While the Department might have an interest in changing perspectives on American history to take a more radicalized view solely through the prism of race, Congress enacted programs to encourage a better grasp and understanding of American history, founding documents, civics, and government,” it also said.
The list of attorneys general included chief law enforcement officers from the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Biden issued an executive order in January that ended the “1776 Commission,” an initiative formed by former President Donald Trump.
Trump had launched the commission as a patriotic response to the “1619 Project.”
The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” according to its website, “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
Supporters of the “1619 Project” claim the curriculum “is a necessary critique of systemic racism and the country’s failings,” according to Fox News.
The project has already entered some public schools as part of the curriculum, igniting controversy.
Trump had blamed “left-wing indoctrination” in public schools for some of the violent riots in 2020.
Last September, Trump said “the left-wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools,” according to CNN.
In July, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton proposed a bill that would impose fiscal penalties on public school districts that use the “1619 Project” as part of their curriculum.
“The New York Times’s 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded,” Cotton said in a statement on his website.
“Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
