Legislation (H.R. 1891) will soon be considered in the House of Representatives that would eliminate the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program at the U.S. Department of Education. 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 Representative on this vital issue.

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.”