Michigan Council for History Education

The U.S. Department of Education is notifying applicants for this year’s Teaching American History grant competition that no new awards will be made this year because funding is not available in the current budget. USDE does have funds to continue existing projects. The future of this program, which proved to be so vital and innovative for thousands of history and social studies teachers across the United States since its inception in 2005, looks grim indeed. The program is slated for elimination and observers are predicting that at best it will be folded into block-grant programs for social studies education.

Thanks to our friends at H-TAH and the TAH program at the US Department of Education, on Feb. 2:

“The Fiscal Year 2011 Teaching American History (TAH) program Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) was published today in the Federal Register.  Here is a link to the Notice:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-2290.pdf. ”

ED is also looking for grant reviewers. Inquiries about becoming a reviewer should be sent to TAHReviewer@ed.gov.

Our parent organization, the National Council for History Education, and the National Coalition for History, the umbrella lobby for dozens of historical societies and professional history associations, have issued funding alerts concerning the budgetary fate of the Teaching American History program.  NCH’s funding alert is here; NCHE’s is here.  The budget for US Department of Education programs is being thrashed out right now on Capitol Hill.  As the NCHE alert points out, “with everything in flux due to changes in leadership and the budget-cutting climate, now is the time to make our voices heard on Capitol Hill about the importance of history education and TAH.”  Links to House and Senate mailing addresses, plus other information are available at the above websites.