The NHPRC is funded at $5 million for FY 2012. This figure represents a $2 million cut from the FY 2011 level of $7.0 million (and a decrease of $8.0 million from the FY 2010 level of $13.0 million). The Administration’s FY 2013 budget request includes only $3 million for the NHPRC, an amount that will not support the ongoing programs and mission of the Commission at even a minimal level. It is up to the Congress to preserve this program, which has already been cut substantially in previous fiscal years.

The NHPRC grants program is funded under the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.

Our partners at the National Humanities Alliance have set up a template message for you to send to your Members of Congress which you can customize. We strongly encourage you to personalize this message, telling Congress why the NHPRC and its grants program are important to you, your institution, your field, state, or district. If you have received or worked on an NHPRC grant, please consider the local or long-term impact of this funding. If possible, cite numbers where appropriate and specify what would be lost without this funding.

The “Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act” includes earlier legislation (H.R. 1891) that would eliminate more than 70 Department of Education programs including Teaching American History grants.

H.R. 3990 would consolidate a host of existing K-12 education programs into new “Local Academic Flexible Grants.” This program would provide block grants to state educational agencies and subgrants to local educational agencies to fund programs to improve student performance, improve teacher effectiveness and provide for professional development. State and local education agencies would have greater flexibility in determining how and where the funds are spent than under existing law.

By the same 16-23 party line vote, the Committee defeated a substitute amendment to H.R. 3990, offered by Ranking Minority Member George Miller (D-Calif.).

Miller’s amendment included a new “Well-Rounded Education” fund that would have been authorized at a level of $500 million in fiscal year 2013. The amendment would have provided funding for State and local educational agencies, or educational service agencies in partnership with Institutes of Higher Education, nonprofit organizations, libraries, or museums to compete for grants in a variety of subject matter areas. Forty-five percent of the funds, or $225 million, would have been reserved for American History programs, Civic Education programs, and Geography programs. Grant funds could be used for professional development, curriculum, assessments, and other academic improvement programs.

Given the lack of bi-partisan support for the two bills, they may pass the House but would be dead on arrival in the Senate. Senator Tom Harkin’s ESEA reform bill passed the Senate Labor, Health, Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee last fall. However Chairman Harkin has not taken his bill to the Senate floor and has indicated he will wait for the House to act first. It is likely that lawmakers will remain stalemated on ESEA reform for the remainder of this Congress, especially given the fact that it a presidential election year. Therefore, it is likely ESEA reform will be left for a new Congress, and perhaps a new President, to address.

Major exceptions are the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). President Obama has requested FY 2013 funding of $154.2 million for the NEH, an $8.2 million increase from the FY ’12 level of $146 million. The NHPRC would see its budget cut by $2 million from the FY ’12 level of $5 million to $3 million in the President’s proposal.

Below is a summary of the President’s proposed FY ’13 budget for key federal agencies and programs. The FY ‘12 budget numbers are provided for comparison.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

The President’s FY ‘13 appropriations budget request includes $386.8 million for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The agency’s request is a reduction of $4.7 million from the $391.5 million amount Congress provided for the current fiscal year.

NARA has requested $371.7 million for its operating expenses. This includes funding for rent, energy, security and staff costs at NARA’s 44 facilities nationwide as well as operational costs of the Electronic Records Archives program.

NARA’s request also includes $4.1 million for the Office of Inspector General and $8 million for repairs and restorations to NARA-owned buildings, a 12 percent reduction from FY ‘12 funding level of $9.1 million.

To see further background on NARA’s proposed FY ’13 budget, click here.

National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC)

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission grants program would see its funding slashed by $2 million from the current $5 million to $3 million, a 40 percent reduction.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

President Obama has requested FY 2013 funding of $154.2 million for the NEH. This represents an $8.2 million (or 5.6%) increase over the final FY 2012 appropriation of $146 million. This includes an additional $5 million in program funds and a special administrative supplement of $3 million for relocation expenses. If one subtracts that amount, the actual funding available for programs, salaries and expenses is $151.2 million, or a 3.6 percent increase over the current year’s figure.

Last week, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the selection of the Trump Organization to acquire and redevelop the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue as a luxury hotel. The historic building currently houses the NEH, the National Endowment for the Arts, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It has not been determined when the move will take place, construction will begin or where the NEH and the other agencies will be relocated.

The President’s request includes:

• $103.5 million for the Endowment’s grant programs in support of projects in the humanities, including $40.3 million for the operations, projects and programs of the 56 state and territorial humanities councils;
• $9 million to support NEH’s special initiative—Bridging Cultures—designed to renew and reinforce the bridges between the multiplicities of cultures and heritages that are part of the fabric of American life;
• $11.5 million in federal matching funds, including funds for the NEH Challenge Grants program to help stimulate and match private donations in support of humanities institutions and organizations;
• $27.2 million for salaries and expenses needed to operate the agency and as mentioned previously $3 million to offset some of the cost of the relocation of NEH from its current quarters.

For a detailed breakdown of NEH’s budget at the programmatic level, visit the National Humanities Alliance’s website at: http://www.nhalliance.org/bm~doc/neh_fy13request.pdf

U.S. Department of Education

K-12 History Education

The President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request for the Department of Education once again proposes consolidating K-12 history education into a new program called Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education. In the FY’12 budget, funding for the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program was eliminated and no funding is requested to resuscitate TAH in FY ‘13.

In FY ’13 the Administration proposes $90 million in funding for the new initiative. In FY ’12 that amount was $246 million, showing a reduced commitment on the part of the Administration to the proposal. The Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education program would support competitive grants to States, high-need LEAs, and nonprofit partners to develop and expand innovative practices to improve teaching and learning of the arts, foreign languages, history, government, economics and financial literacy, environmental education, physical education, health education, and other subjects. There would be no dedicated funding for any of the disciplines.

It is important to remember this reorganization of programs is dependent on the passage of a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the law that governs K-12 education. Congress has been stalemated on this issue and it is unlikely that an ESEA reauthorization bill will be enacted amidst election year politics.

Title VI–Fulbright Hays Programs

The U.S. Department of Education’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies (IEFLS) programs, including HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs, form the vital infrastructure of the federal government’s investment in the international service pipeline.

The Fulbright-Hays programs are of particular importance to historians because of the resources they provide for research and education relating to foreign languages and cultures.

Under the President’s proposed budget, the Fulbright-Hays program would be level funded while the Title VI Domestic Programs would see a small increase of $1.7 million.

Fulbright-Hays:

• President’s FY ’13 Budget Request: $7.4 million
• FY ’12: $7.4 million

Higher Education Act, Title VI-A&B (Domestic Programs)

• President’s FY ’13 Budget Request: $68.2 million
• FY ’12: $66.5 million

IEFLS Total:

• President’s FY ’13 Request: $75.6 million
• FY ’12: $74 million

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

President Obama has requested $232 million in fiscal year 2013 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an amount equal to the agency’s current funding. The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. To see further background on IMLS’s proposed FY ’13 budget, click here.

Library Programs:

The President requested $184.7 million for library programs. Of that amount, approximately 85 percent ($156.3 million) is distributed through the Grants to States program to the State Library Administrative Agencies in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and freely associated states, according to a population-based formula.

Museum Programs:

The President requested level funding in FY ’13 of $30.9 million for museum programs.

Despite level funding for the IMLS, the proposed budget includes shifts in priorities within the agency. For a breakdown at the programmatic level, go to:
http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/Appropriations03-13.pdf

National Park Service (Historic Preservation Programs)

Heritage Preservation programs would receive level funding of $56 million in FY ’13. State historic preservation offices would once again receive $47 million and tribal grants $9 million.

The Heritage Partnership Program would see its grant funding cut by nearly 50 percent from the current $16.3 million to $8.3 million. This program supports the nearly 50 National Heritage Areas created by Congress.

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution’s FY ‘13 request totals $856.8 million, compared to the Institution’s FY ‘12 appropriation of $810.2 million. The request includes $660.3 million for Salaries and Expenses and $196.5 million for Facilities Capital projects. Within the Facilities request is $85 million for construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is expected to open in 2015. An additional $16.5 million is provided to repair building damage from the 2011 earthquake in the Washington, D.C area.

With increasing budgetary pressures on federal spending, your help is needed now more than ever to defend critical humanities programs. The National Coalition for History is a co-sponsor of the annual event.

For the preliminary program and other event information, visit www.nhalliance.org/events. To register online, click here.

Humanities Advocacy Day started in 2000 to provide an opportunity for the entire humanities community to convene, meet with their elected officials, and convey the importance of federal support for the humanities. Strong participation in Humanities Advocacy Day events is essential to our success in increasing public support for, and understanding of, the humanities.

The 2012 preliminary program includes:

• NHA annual membership meeting
• Presentations of current work in the humanities
• Panel discussions on the humanities role in research, education, public engagement and other policy areas
• Luncheon keynote address
• Humanities funding and policy briefing
• Capitol Hill reception
• Visits with Members of Congress

The ESEA bill passed 15-7, with the support of all the committee Democrats and Republican Senators Enzi (Wyo.-ranking member), Alexander (Tenn.) and Kirk (Ill.). The Casey amendment was agreed to by voice vote.

Thank you to all who responded to NCH alerts this week urging the HELP Committee to adopt the Casey “well-rounded” education amendment. It clearly made the difference.

“Well-rounded” education grants would be made from the U.S. Department of Education to the States. The States in turn would decide which Local Education Agencies (LEAs) receive funding through a competitive subgrants process. The amendment encourages partnerships with non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education or other state education agencies.

In addition to history, civics and social studies other subject areas eligible for grants include the arts; economics; environmental education; financial literacy; foreign languages; geography; health education; and physical education.

The new “well rounded” education program is targeted at low-income, high-need districts, which includes students with disabilities and English learners. The LEAs must identify in their application the academic subject areas for which they are seeking funds. This is keeping with the ideological thrust of the bill, providing maximum flexibility to school districts to spend federal dollars on what they identify as their own priorities such as professional development for teachers and the development and implementation of “high-quality curricula.”

History would be competing for funding with the subject areas mentioned above at the local level. So there would be no guaranteed federal funding stream for history professional development as there was under the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program, which would cease to exist.

While this is by no means an ideal solution, given the current emphasis on deficit reduction and drive to push decisions on education spending to the localities, it does ensure that federal funds will still be available for history education and professional development, albeit at a much lower level. We will continue to advocate for the restoration of the Teaching American History grants program; but with neither Congress nor the White House willing to keep TAH on the table, we also need to exert effective pressure in favor of the Harkin/Enzi bill that is actually in play.

Chairman Harkin has stated he intends to bring the ESEA bill to the Senate floor before Thanksgiving, with the hope a final bill could be worked out with the House by the end of the year. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

There is no comparable comprehensive ESEA reauthorization bill in the House. Instead a number of piecemeal bills addressing specific sections of the ESEA have been introduced. In May, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed H.R. 1891, the “Setting New Priorities in Education Act, which would eliminate 43 programs at the Department of Education including Teaching American History (TAH) grants.

Chaffetz introduced a bill during the previous session of Congress to restrict the grant-making authority of the NHPRC. During an oversight hearing on the NHPRC in June 2010, Chaffetz attempted to discredit the witnesses from the historical and archival communities, and made numerous unsubstantiated claims about grants he alleged had received NHPRC funding in the past. He maintained that the NHPRC duplicates existing programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Last year, legislation to reauthorize the NHPRC at a $20 million level from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2015, died in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

On June 23, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee cleared a bill (H.R. 2434, H. Rept. 112-136) providing only $1 million for the NHPRC in fiscal year (FY) 2012. That figure constitutes a 90% reduction from the FY ’11 funding level of $7 million and is $4 million less than the Obama administration’s request for the NHPRC. The House is not expected to take up H.R. 2434 until after the upcoming August recess.

Representative Chaffetz would likely be prohibited from offering his bill as an amendment when the Financial Services and General Government FS & GG) FY ‘12 appropriations bill comes to the House floor. Any Member can raise a point of order questioning whether an amendment is considered “legislating on an appropriations bill” which is prohibited under House rules. Repealing an existing law falls under that restriction. However, nothing would prohibit Chaffetz from offering an amendment to strip the $1 million in proposed FY ’12 funding for the NHPRC.

Assuming no changes are made when the bill is considered on the House floor, advocacy efforts will shift to the Senate. There is no indication when the Senate Financial Services & General Government Subcommittee will meet to consider their FY ‘12 bill. Congress will be in recess the month of August until after Labor Day. Given what occurred last year, and in previous years, there will likely be a series of continuing resolutions to keep the federal government running after the start of Fiscal Year 2012 on October 1. So it is likely many months before any action will occur in the Senate.

The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2010, Grades 4, 8, and 12 is available at www.nationsreportcard.gov. Additional information, including a summary of the report, is available at: http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory_2010/

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued the following statement on the results of the U.S. History 2010 NAEP:

“The history scores released today show that student performance is still too low. These results tell us that, as a country, we are failing to provide children with a high-quality, well-rounded education. A well-rounded curriculum is key to preparing students for success in school and life. That’s why we’re putting a greater emphasis on courses like history, art, drama and music in our efforts to fix No Child Left Behind.”

The NAEP scores of lower-performing fourth graders have increased since 1994, according to the U.S. History 2010 assessment. The report, released today, showed some of the greatest gains by fourth graders since 1994 were among the historically lowest-performing groups. In the fourth-grade, there was a 22-point increase from 1994 to 2010 in the scores for students ranking in the bottom 10th percentile of performance.

In the eighth-grade, students whose scores ranked in the 10th, 25th and 50th percentiles were higher than in 2006.

Meanwhile, performance of twelfth-graders was only 2 points higher than in 1994, and there was no significant change in scores from 2006 in any of the five percentiles or racial/ethnic groups. In 2010, over half (55 percent) of high school seniors performed below the Basic achievement level.

“We are encouraged by the progress of our fourth and eighth graders, particularly by the gains being made by students who traditionally have been among the lowest performers,” said David P. Driscoll, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. “We need to bring even more of these students up to the Proficient level, and we want to see more progress overall by our twelfth graders, who will soon be active citizens.”

Broken down by racial and ethnic groups, Blacks and Hispanics in the fourth grade made larger gains (22 points and 23 points, respectively) from 1994 to 2010 than their White counterparts. And in the eighth grade, the increases posted by Black and Hispanic students since 2006 helped them narrow the gaps with their White peers.

Compared to 1994, average scores in 2010 for males were higher at all three grade levels, and scores for female students increased at grades 4 and 8. Males outperformed females in 2010 in grades 8 and 12. Although there was no significant difference in scores between males and females at grade 4 in 2010, the scores of male students were higher than in 2006.

NAEP results are reported as average scores on a 0 to 500 scale and as percentages of students scoring at or above three achievement levels: Basic, denoting partial mastery of the knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work; Proficient, representing solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter; and Advanced, representing superior performance. The scores can be compared to those from 1994, 2001 and 2006 to show how students’ knowledge and skills have progressed.

The history assessment, a mix of multiple choice and constructed-response questions, was administered by the National Center for Education Statistics to nationally representative samples of public and private school students, including 7,000 fourth graders, 11,800 eighth graders and 12,400 twelfth graders.

Questions were designed to measure students’ knowledge and analytical skills in U.S. history in the context of four historical themes: democracy, including basic principles and core values developed from the American Revolution through the present; culture, focusing on how different racial, ethnic and religious groups interacted and the traditions that resulted; technology, focusing on the transformation of America’s economy from rural frontier to industrial superpower and its impact on society, ideas and the environment; and world role, the movement of America from isolationism to worldwide responsibility.

At grade 4, students who scored at or above the Basic level (73 percent) were likely to be able to interpret a map about the Colonial economy; students scoring at or above Proficient (20 percent) were likely to be able to understand that canals increased trade among states; students scoring at Advanced (2 percent) were likely to be able to explain how machines and factories changed work.

At grade 8, the 69 percent of students scoring at or above Basic were likely to be able to identify a result of Native American-European interaction; the 17 percent at or above Proficient were likely to be able to identify a domestic impact of war; the 1 percent at Advanced were likely to be able to explain two differences between plantations and small farms in the antebellum South.

At grade 12, the 45 percent of students scoring at or above Basic were likely to be able to understand the context of a women’s movement document. The 12 percent who scored at or above Proficient were likely to be able to understand Missouri statehood in the context of sectionalism; and the 1 percent who scored at Advanced were likely to be able to evaluate Civil War arguments.

H.R. 1891, the “Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act,” would terminate 43 K-12 federal education programs, including the Teaching American History grants program, the House Republican leadership contends are wasteful, ineffective and duplicative. Teaching American History grants is the only federal program that funds K-12 history education.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee has cleared H.R. 1891 and it will go to the House FLOOR for a vote soon. It is important that you contact your Member of the House of Representatives TODAY to urge them to oppose this bill. We have set up a template message for you to customize. We strongly encourage you to personalize this message by telling Congress why TAH programs are important to you, your institution, your field, your state, and/or district.

The President’s fiscal year 2012 budget request for the Department of Education would eliminate Teaching American History grants (TAH) as a separately funded program. However, the Administration proposed consolidating history education into a new program called Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education.

The Obama Administration DOES NOT support eliminating federal funding for history education, but rather moving in into a new competitive grant program. The Administration’s proposed Well-Rounded Education program would support competitive grants to States, high-need local education agencies (LEAs), and nonprofit partners to develop and expand innovative practices to improve teaching and learning of the arts, foreign languages, history, civics, economics and financial literacy, environmental education, physical education, health education, and other subjects.

The National Coalition for History strongly opposes this legislation. Contact your Member of Congress as soon as possible and tell them to oppose H.R. 1891, the “Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act.”

The House and Senate still need to pass the budget bill (H.R. 1473) by the end of this week when the current continuing resolution (CR) expires. While there remains dissatisfaction on the right and the left in Congress with the deal worked out by the House and Senate leadership and the White House, the bill is expected to pass.

As noted above, the Appropriations Committee only released a list of reductions with no details and the bill language does not provide clarification in every case. Usually a conference report is issued along with an appropriations bill, giving agencies instructions on how funding should be allocated. However, it is unclear at this time whether or when a conference report will be forthcoming and what discretion agency heads will have at the programmatic level if it is not issued.

Teaching American History (TAH) grants (Department of Education):

The Teaching American History Grants program sustained a cut of $73 million
(-61%) down from $119 million in FY ’10 to $46 million. While this is disheartening, throughout the budget process House Republicans had repeatedly targeted the program for elimination. The Administration as well had zeroed out TAH for FY ’11 and proposed consolidating history education in a new Well Rounded Education program where it would have competed for funding with arts, music, foreign languages, civics, economics and other subjects.

So the fact that TAH survived at all is a major victory. Had the TAH program been eliminated it would have been nearly impossible to resuscitate it in the upcoming FY ’12 budget process and down the road in the pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

One question is whether the $46 million will be enough to fund new FY ’11 TAH grants. At a public forum earlier this year, Department of Education staff stated continuing grants would have priority in receiving FY ‘11 funding and any remaining funds would go to new grants.

In FY ‘08, the Education Department awarded three year TAH grants, but provided the option for the grantees to apply for additional funds for a fourth or fifth year. The FY ’08 grantees have been required to file detailed progress reports with the department and they are being evaluated to determine whether they merit additional funding.

The application deadline was April 4. However, there is no way of knowing yet how many FY ‘08 grantees applied for additional out-year funding and if they will qualify. As a result, given the limited amount of funds available, conceivably there could be no new TAH grants made this year.

National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC):

The NHPRC was cut $6 million from $13 million in FY ‘10 down to $7 million this year. While this is a significant reduction, the House in a previous CR had cut the NHPRC to a $4 million level and there were House Republicans pushing for outright elimination of the commission.

In FY ’10 the NHPRC received $8.5 million for grants. An additional $4.5 million was set-aside to fund a project to digitize and make the papers of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington available on-line. While the Founding Fathers Project is on-going, that funding was always intended as a one-time allocation to jump start the initiative.

Thus, the practical reality is that the amount of grant funding available to the NHPRC in FY ’11 was reduced by $1.5 million.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH):

The NEH budget was reduced $12.5 million (-7.5%) from the FY ’10 level of $167.5 million down to a level of $155 million. There had been a series of amendments to previous CRs in the House that would have imposed more draconian cuts in the NEH budget which were fended off by the advocacy efforts of the National Humanities Alliance.

National Park Service:

While no programmatic details are available concerning the Park Service’s history-related programs, two preservation programs were eliminated in one of the short term CR’s passed earlier this year. They had been targeted for elimination under the Administration’s proposed FY ’11 budget.

• Save America’s Treasures program–eliminated (-$14.8 million): These funds are used to make small one-time grants for specific local historic preservation projects to preserve a building or artifact which might otherwise be lost.
• Preserve America program—eliminated ($4.6 million): This program provides small grants to local communities in support of heritage tourism, education and historic preservation planning activities.

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS):

The IMLS budget was reduced $44 million down to a level of $238 million. In FY ’10 the IMLS received $282.3 million, $16 million of which were congressional earmarks. The $44 million reduction includes the amount of those earmarks plus $28 million of cuts in programmatic funding. There is no breakdown available yet as to how the money will be divided between museum and library programs.