A conservative group called the National Association of Scholars had announced a “1620 Project” to highlight the contributions of the pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth Bay that year. And as the racial-justice protests of the summer renewed interest in the Times project — and the Pulitzer Center (no relation to the prizes) announced that 3,500 classrooms across the country were using its curriculum — it landed on the radar of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

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In July, Cotton proposed a bill to bar federal funds from schools that used the 1619 curriculum — “a radical work of historical revisionism aiming to indoctrinate our kids to hate America,” he called it. “The entire premise” of the Times project, he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “is that America is at root a systematically racist country to the core and irredeemable.”

The biggest cultural challenge of this lifetime is “defeating anti-American indoctrination,” Gov. Kristi Noem said in a Fox News opinion piece co-signed by Dr. Ben Carson and published Monday morning.

The politicians shared they’ve signed on to the "1776 Pledge to Save Our Schools," which commits that K-12 public education will restore “honest, patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love for our country.”

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In the column, Noem and Carson criticize President Joe Biden for canceling and disbanding President Trump’s 1776 Commission, which released a controversial 1776 Report two days before the end of Trump’s term, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and attempted to end a “radicalized view of American history.”

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In the column, Noem shares concerns about giving up and abandoning altogether “the teaching of our children the true and inspiring story of America,” and that children should be taught about the country’s values, history and heroes.

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America’s most defining principle, the pair argue, is that as individuals, “we are all created equal by God.”

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The conservative governor also successfully pushed for $900,000 in state funding to create new civics curriculum to meet her goal of educating why the "U.S. is the most special nation in the history of the world," while efforts to mandate instruction on the state's tribal history, culture and government failed in the legislative session this spring.