The Education Department has been inundated with thousands of complaints about its plan to encourage schools to teach a race-based view of American history that opponents say is both inaccurate and racially divisive.

The lion’s share of the more than 35,000 comments opposed the idea when the Biden administration last month invited input on proposed grants to K-12 schools that focus on slavery and racism as the defining characteristic of the American experience, a curriculum known as critical race theory.

Spurring outrage, in particular, was the department’s mention of the New York Times’ “The 1619 Project” as an example of what the Biden administration wants to see more of in civics classes.

history around slavery and racism, has become a flashpoint in a political fight over racial justice, cancel culture and what American children are taught about their country.

Despite winning a Pulitzer Prize last year, “The 1619 Project” is criticized by historians for making historically inaccurate assertions, including that the Founding Fathers fought the American Revolution to preserve slavery.

Guess said the inclusion of “The 1619 Project” in the classroom represents a decline in American education and “a systematic dumbing down of our children and youth.”.

David Randall, the director of the alliance, said the proposed grant program was steeped in “anti-Americanism.”.

The Trump administration’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, nevertheless finalized the rule.

Still, opponents of the grant program are hopeful that this time the outpouring of criticism will make Education Secretary Miguel Cardona back down.

The deluge of criticism arrived despite the Education Department’s attempts to downplay the idea that it will dictate what schools teach or that it will require incorporating “The 1619 Project” in the American history curriculum.

The Education Department said in April that the department had mentioned “The 1619 Project,” only to give “examples of how institutions and individuals are finally acknowledging the legacy of systemic inequities in this country and paying attention to it.”.

Nor do I believe the secretary of education or the Department of Education should be telling local districts what to teach in their courses.”.

And more to the point, it will give education bureaucrats an excuse — we have to do this to get federal grant money,” he said.

“When the Education Department mentions the 1619 Project and racist ‘anti-racism,’ that clearly signals that they desire grant applications of that nature.”.

To the defenders of “The 1619 Project,” what’s now taught in classrooms gives an incomplete and white-washed version of American history.

“The default curriculum in the United States is Euro-centric, often glossing over or sanitizing periods of American history like Reconstruction and focusing on the valuable contributions of European-Americans while portraying people of color primarily as passive victims,” wrote the National Education Association

The union noted a study that found white students who learned about the history of racism in the U.S

Rather than being founded on racism, “The American Republic was forged on the belief that all human beings ‘are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,’” the groups wrote

“Despite this remarkable history, the Department has chosen to encourage the espousal of civics education programs that ignore and minimize America’s inimitable and distinctive role in the establishment of a free world,” read the comment letter