South Dakota Curriculum Resembles Trump’s ‘1776 Report’

Proposed K-12 social studies standards in South Dakota align with Hillsdale College’s “1776 Curriculum,” an adaptation of the Trump White House’s President’s Advisory 1776 Commission Final Report, which was widely panned by historians as being inaccurate. According to the Associated Press, the South Dakota standards emphasize American exceptionalism, criticize progressivism as conflicting with the nation’s founding ideals and assert that most of the nation’s founders wanted to end slavery. Republican governor Kristi Noem reportedly recruited William Morrisey, a former Hillsdale professor of politics, to develop the state’s social studies standards for $200,000.