Republicans in the U.S House have introduced legislation to eliminate funding for grants from the U.S. Department of Education to teach American History, labeling such expenditures a waste of money.

 

The Teaching American History grant program, which began in 2001, gave a total of $119 million in FY 2010 to 124 local educational agencies with the goal of teaching traditional U.S. history as a separate subject matter.

 

Representative John Kline (R-Minnesota), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said he supports the move because “right now, far too many taxpayer dollars are dedicated to ineffective, redundant K-12 programs.”

 

The National Coalition for History, which opposes the bill, accused Republicans of relying on an outdated Office of Management and Budget assessment of federal history-teaching grants to justify their position.

 

Representative George Miller (D-California), the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, opposes the defunding attempt, saying: “The Republican education bill introduced today will not help move our education system to the 21st century and it won’t mean better outcomes for our students. It does nothing to address the concerns with accountability, it does nothing to support better data usage in schools, it does nothing to empower parents in their children’s education and it does nothing to help bring our schools and our students to the future.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

House Bill Introduced to Eliminate Teaching American History Grants (National Coalition for History)

Teaching American History (U.S. Department of Education)