The American education system is, to hear Donald Trump tell it, indoctrinating school children with a left-wing agenda. According to the Washington Post, Trump called efforts “to educate students about racism and slavery as an insult to the country’s lofty founding principles.”
But since curriculum for schools is not set at the federal level, there’s not much Trump can do about it except appoint a commission, which he has done. The commission will promote a “pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history,” which he said would encourage educators to teach students about the “miracle of American history.”
He’s calling it the 1776 commission, which is more than a veiled shot at the 1619 Project by the New York Times which wrote of the year the first slaves were brought to what would become the United States.
“As he campaigns for reelection, Trump has repeatedly cast education that examines the nation’s failures as a betrayal, seeking to rally his base and tap into hostility toward protesters who have taken to the streets to denounce racial injustice and police brutality. His argument casts any criticism of the United States, even of slavery, as unpatriotic.”
Trump has blamed unrest across the country this on “indoctrination” of students to a left-wing education system. The Post adds:
“Yet educators and students say that Trump is wildly out of touch with what happens in public school classrooms, where the United States is still held up as a beacon of freedom and democracy, and a moral leader.“
