History Education Hawaii has learned from the National Council for History Education (NCHE) that the House of Representatives yesterday passed a short term (one week) Continuing Resolution (CR) that includes $12 billion in cuts. The Teaching American History Program (TAH) was zeroed out -meaning no funding.
The bill was brought forward to forestall the impending government shutdown at midnight tonight as well as to fund the military through the fall. Both the Senate and the President have said they will not support this (the former through not acting upon it and the latter through a veto).
Senator Harkin is apparently working to keep TAH alive and the Senate as a whole does not appear to want to eliminate it. Some cuts to TAH are entirely probable. At this moment the issue is to keep TAH alive and funded.
Concerned citizens from across the nation have reached out to express their concerns. They include teachers, professors, museums, historical societies, libraries, archives, business leaders, civic leaders, lawyers, etc. Hearing from constituents is vital.
The National Council for History Education is asking for the following:
1) If you have not contacted your Senator, do so! Send an email or make the call. Snail mail (unless it is over-nighted) will not be of much use. I can provide numbers or email addresses or they can be find on the official web sites for each Senator (google their name and state and you will get it pretty quickly).
2) Get your friends, children, TAH teachers, state council members, professional colleagues to make the call. Spending just a couple either sending emails or working the phones to get friends to call will have a tremendous impact.
3) Be short and sweet and clear on the message:
a) TAH is important needs to be fully funded.
b) TAH is NOT an earmark. We have seen some emails from staffers who are confused on this issue and claim that TAH is an earmark. This is a legislatively mandated program funded annually within the Department of
Education and is not an earmark. Emphasize this right up front!
c) TAH is the only federally funded professional development program in history education and needs to be supported.
4) We must reach out to Senator Tom Harkin (Dem. Iowa, Chair of the Senate HELP committee). He does support TAH and NCHE has met frequently with his staff. Last fall, in the initial CR discussion, he proposed full funding for the program so we know he is a supporter. He needs to hear from you:
Senator Tom Harkin
http://harkin.senate.gov/contact_opinion.cfm
Office number is 202-224-3254
Fax is 202-224-9369
Cedar Rapids Office is 319-365-4504
Des Moines Office is 515-284-4574
Sioux City Office is 712-252-1550
For Hawaii history teachers, history students, historians and history buffs please continue to contact the offices of Senator Daniel Inouye. The deadline is looming. Please contact him today!
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