S.C. Republican bill would corrupt teaching of history

In a commentary appearing in Statehouse Report, Furman University Education Professor Paul L. Thomas has a few things to say about social studies teaching in South Carolina and how it might be threatened. He cites the 1776 Commission, an advisory committee established in 2020 during the Trump administration to support patriotic education. Just days before Trump left the White House, the commission released the 1776 Report, which rejected the 1619 Project and drew criticism from historians for its partisan politics and inaccuracies.

Although the Biden administration has removed 1776 Commission report, a bill introduced in  the South Carolina legislature puts the report back on the table for review by the State Superintendent of Education.

Thomas writes, “S.C. Republicans are claiming that the teaching of history and social studies is politically corrupt (the basic argument of the 1776 Commission), and then proposing a bill that politically corrupts the teaching of history and social studies.”