Trump Signals Executive Buy To Establish A 1776 Commission To Instill ‘Patriotic Education’

Topline

President Trump on Monday signed an executive buy to build a 1776 Commission to advise the president on how America’s founding story really should be taught in colleges, an work that was criticized by some historians and educators when he to start with dealt with it in a speech responding to the 1619 Task and other efforts to alter how American record is taught.

President Trump holds a signed government purchase at the White Household on June 26.

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Key Facts

The govt purchase establishes a 20-individual 1776 Commission beneath the Office of Schooling which will aid the president encourage what he calls “patriotic training.”

The commission will be responsible for tasks which include offering a report about the major ideas of America’s founding story and supporting the government’s strategies to rejoice the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The govt get also needs federal businesses to prioritize federal means for universities that prioritize “patriotic education” and to make sure that all faculties getting federal cash rejoice Structure Day.

The president did not mention the 1619 Undertaking by identify in his govt order, but alluded to it, crafting that the “recent attacks” on the founding tale have centered on race and slavery which he called “one-sided” and “divisive.”

The White Household doubled down in a reality sheet about the order, saying that “misconstrued” accounts of the nation’s founding story intend to portray America as a “systemically racist country” and that states, lecturers and mom and dad must be in a position to select the curriculum.

Vital Quotation

In his speech in September, Trump used the New York Times’ 1619 Challenge to illustrate his belief that “the remaining has warped, distorted, and defiled the American tale with deceptions, falsehoods, and lies,” professing it rewrote American background.

Vital Background

Some educators and historians criticized Trump’s system when he initial lifted it in September. William R. Ferris, a professor of background at the University of North Carolina, explained to the New York Situations it was an example of Trump “treating historians just as he treats experts — by disregarding our incredibly finest voices who have published on American background and race.” In its place of producing a new fee, Ferris urged Trump to request congressional assist for courses that now exist to instruct American history, this sort of as the Library of Congress and the Countrywide Archives. New York University professor Diane Silvers Ravitch, an schooling historian, wrote a website write-up noting the federal authorities doesn’t have the authority to change school curriculum due to the fact it is up to the states. She claimed the president was trying to “whitewash” history.

Tangent

The 1619 Job included a proposed university curriculum with lesson ideas, discussion guides and advised historical situations for instructing about America’s founding story. However Nikole Hannah-Jones, the editor of the 1619 Venture, received a Pulitzer Prize, the challenge was criticized by some prominent historians and teachers who claimed there have been key factual glitches.