On Thursday, Senator Tom Cotton, who came under fire for his op-ed in The New York Times that called for the U.S. military to help restore cities to normalcy from the rioting there, introduced a bill in the Senate that would “prohibit Federal funds from being made available to teach the 1619 Project curriculum in elementary schools and secondary schools.”
The 1619 Project is the brainchild of The New York Times and an attempt to rewrite American history by claiming the nation’s true founding occurred in 1619, when slaves were first brought to the American continent, rather than 1776, when the American colonies united to declare themselves the United States of America.
From its outset, the bill, titled the “Saving American History Act of 2020,” counters the 1619 project’s ahistorical position that the true founding of the United states of America occurred in 1619. The bill states: “The true date of America’s founding is July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. The self-evident truths set forth by that Declaration are the fundamental principles upon which America was founded.”
Then the bill segues to the attempt by leftists to destroy the traditional (and factual, considering the fact that the term “United States” was adopted in 1776, not 1619) position that the United States was founded in 1776. The bill writes:
An activist movement is now gaining momentum to deny or obfuscate this history by claiming that America was not founded on the ideals of the Declaration but rather on slavery and oppression. This distortion of American history is being taught to children in public school classrooms via the New York Times’ ‘‘1619 Project’’, which claims that ‘‘nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional’’ grew ‘‘out of slavery.” The 1619 Project is a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying the true principles on which it was founded.
Cotton, who served his country as a lieutenant in the armed services in Iraq, points out the necessity of educating children about the American ideal: “The Federal Government has a strong interest in promoting an accurate account of the Nation’s history through public schools and forming young people into knowledgeable and patriotic citizens.”
Then, down to brass tacks. The bill throws down the gauntlet thus:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds shall be used by any elementary school or secondary school to teach the 1619 Project initiative of the New York Times in such school; or local educational agency to support the teaching of the 1619 Project initiative of the New York Times in the public schools served by such agency.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an elementary school or secondary school that teaches the 1619 Project initiative of the New York Times in such school or a local educational agency that supports the teaching of the 1619 Project initiative of the New York Times in the public schools served by such agency shall not receive any Federal funding for professional development.