The Department of Education has announced no new Teaching American History (TAH) Grants will be made in fiscal year (FY) 2011. All $46 million in available funds were awarded to existing TAH program grantees.
The Department of Education issued the following statement with regard to FY ’11 TAH funding:
“Funding for the Teaching American History (TAH) grant program was decreased in the FY 2011 full-year continuing resolution completion. As a result, there are sufficient funds only to support continuation grants for the TAH program to current grantees. Therefore, we will not be making any new awards in FY 2011 for this program.
We appreciate your interest in the TAH program and your support for improving the teaching of American history in our nation’s schools. We encourage you to continue to access the TAH Web site for further program updates.”
The Teaching American History Grants program sustained a 61 % cut from $119 million in FY ’10 down to $46 million for FY ’11.
Normally TAH grants run for three years. However, 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 in FY ’11. This year, FY ‘08 grantees were required to file detailed progress reports and they were evaluated to determine whether they merited additional funding.
On May 25, the House Education and Workforce Committee approved by a strict party line vote of 23-16, H.R. 1891, the “Setting New Priorities in Education Act.” This bill would eliminate 43 programs at the Department of Education including Teaching American History Grants.
H.R. 1891 will now be considered by the House. We urge you to contact your Member of Congress immediately to oppose this bill! Click here to access an on-line advocacy tool that allows you to send an e-mail message directly to your Congressman on this vital issue. 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.
