According to the National Coalition for History, the Department of Education is inviting applications for the next round of Teaching American History grants despite the fact that there is a good chance that Congress will not fund the continuation of the program.
Here is the background:
President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request to Congress for the Department of Education proposed consolidating 38 existing K–12 education programs into 11 new programs. Under the administration’s budget request, grants for history education would now be part of a new program called “Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education.” Teaching American History Grants would be consolidated into this new program and would no longer exist as a free-standing budget line item.
The administration proposed $265 million in funding in fiscal year 2011 for the new initiative. Although the fiscal 2011 budget request proposed a $38.9 million increase in funding to support teaching and learning in arts, history, civics, foreign languages, geography, and economics, the administration proposes to combine eight subject-specific grant programs into a single competitive grant program. Unfortunately, under the proposed competitive grant program the various subjects would be pitted against each other for scarce resources.
In July, the National Coalition for History (NCH) and ten other NCH members joined forces with over 20 educational organizations representing other K-12 academic disciplines in issuing a statement to Congress and the Administration calling for the continued robust funding of core academic subjects including history. This includes maintenance of discrete funding for each discipline, including Teaching American History grants.
Most observers expect major cuts in federal discretionary non-national security programs in the next Continuing Resolution that will fund the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year. This is causing uncertainty within the Department of Education as to the availability of FY 2011 funding for TAH.
As someone who has been involved with TAH grants in Bledsoe County, TN, Palm Beach, FL, Guilford County, NC, Hattiesburg, MS, Monroe, LA, and Raleigh, NC, and Milwaukee, WI, I would hate to see these grants disappear or have to compete with grant programs in other disciplines.
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