Biden Offers Grants to Teach Children '1619 Project,' Inherent Racism in Schools
Attempt to implement left-wing curriculum in Department of Education policy
© press
The Biden administration plans to offer grants for United States history classes that teach critical race theory and the “1619 Project,” a New York Times series that depicts slavery as the centerpiece of the American narrative.
The proposed grants were offered as part of programs that dispense several million dollars a year to K-12 schools.
But critics of the 1619 Project warned the grant program was an attempt to implement the left-wing curriculum in Department of Education policy.
President of the conservative National Association of Scholars, Peter Wood said:
“What’s really happening in the ‘Proposed Priorities’ is an effort to establish funding priorities that will shape the $1 billion per year Educating for American Democracy (EAD) bill pending in Congress."
© press
The grants were listed in the Federal Register as proposed rules, which are open to comment until May 19.
The rules also touted the teachings of Ibram X. Kendi, a Black professor, and pioneer in critical race theory.
The theory says White people are complicit in perpetuating systemic racism, regardless of actions and thoughts, and an unspecified period of reverse discrimination is required to remove White supremacist institutions.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historians have blasted the 1619 Project as bogus history due to it making slavery the defining characteristic of the American experience.
“The idea in the Department of Education is to establish a precedent for neo-racist pedagogy in one small program so that the vastly larger program, should it become law, can swim right ahead with 1619-revisionist history and Kendi’s I-hate-America reductionism,” Mr. Wood said.
Around $5 million in grants are distributed every year, which are tied to the Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics (Academies) and National Activities programs.
© press
According to the proposal, the goal is to improve “the quality of teaching of American history, civics, and government in elementary schools and secondary schools, including the teaching of traditional American history."
Those who incorporate Kendi’s anti-racism concepts and the 1619 Project will be prioritized in the awarding of grants under the rule.
The department of Education said the lessons are important now because COVID-19 has had a “disproportionate impact on people of color,” and the U.S is undergoing a “national reckoning with systemic racism [that] highlighted the urgency of improving racial equity throughout our society, including in our education system.”
But critics argue that against claims that the pandemic emergency justifies the curriculum.
“What’s baked into these priorities are the ideas that America is systemically racist; that Americans are implicitly racist; and that anyone who denies these views is spreading ‘misinformation,’” Mr. Wood said.
“No program that gives the stamp of federal approval to such risible sources deserves the light of day."
"These ‘Proposed Priorities’ are an affront to history and civics as they should be taught.”
