Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill on Thursday to cut off federal funding to public K-12 schools that teach the 1619 project, an interactive New York Times Magazine project aimed at re-examining America's legacy of slavery that has come under fire from conservatives and some historians for alleged inaccuracies.
UNITED STATES - JANUARY 29: Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., arrives for the Senate Select Intelligence ... [+] 
The bill, entitled the "Saving American History Act of 2020," would prohibit public K-12 schools from using federal funds to teach the 1619 project.
The bill would require the secretaries of Education, Health and Human Services and Agriculture to allocate funding to schools that teach the project based on "how much it costs to plan and teach that curriculum."
"The New York Times's 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded," said Cotton in a statement.
He added that "not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage."
Cotton has been on a crusade in recent months against what he describes as "woke culture" after the New York Times came under heavy fire for an op-ed he published arguing for military intervention in George Floyd protests, which the paper later backtracked from.
The text of the bill reflects Cotton's broader crusade against left-wing cultural stances, stating "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."
School districts in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Newark, New Jersey and Buffalo, New York have adopted the 1619 project into their history curriculums.
New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie slammed Cotton's bill for coming amid a worsening pandemic, tweeting "as always I am struck by how none of these guys have any actual interest in trying to solve any of the real problems faced by their constituents." He also sarcastically quipped, "anyway this left-wing cancel culture is out of control."
If Cotton's constituents disagree with his bill, they will have significant difficulty finding recourse; Cotton is running for a second term virtually unopposed. Joshua Mahoney, Cotton's would-be Democratic opponent, dropped out of the race shortly after filing, leaving Democrats without a nominee in November. A memo obtained by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette revealed that Republicans may have had damaging information on Mahoney and waited for the filing deadline before revealing it. Cotton's remaining opponents are Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr., and left-wing independent Dan Whitfield.
I am a news desk reporter covering politics and the 2020 election. I have previously worked for MSNBC and Chronogram Magazine. I attended Vassar College and the London
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