The National Coalition for History is asking you to email letters to your U.S. Senators as soon as possible urging them to save the Teaching American History (TAH) Grants Program and Civic Education funding (through competitive grants).

Legislation is currently being drafted in the Senate that would fund federal programs for the rest of this fiscal year, FY 2011. It is absolutely vital that our members send emails as soon as possible to save TAH and Civics funding in FY’11. We will be sending a separate sample letter regarding FY’12 appropriations and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) later this spring.

The immediate, critical first priority is to save these two funding streams in the FY’11 budget for the U.S Department of Education. The House of Representatives has already targeted TAH and civics education for elimination. However, the Senate is drafting its FY’11 funding bill now and there is still time to save these programs if we act quickly.

If you click here you will be directed to a sample letter. Please feel free to craft your own letter, the important paragraph to be sure you include is:

“To help our nation’s schools meet their civic mission to help students understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens, Congress should retain the Teaching American History Grants program and maintain federal funding support for civic education, while making the civics grants competitive. The civic education grants should go to non-profits with a demonstrated ability to deliver civic education programs, emphasis should be on programs serving currently under-served student populations.” You can put that in your own words, but be sure to get the points in that paragraph across.

Here is a link to the U.S. Senate website where you can easily find the email addresses of the Senators from your state.. To be effective, emails must come from constituents so only send them to your two Senators.

Please copy your letters to Civics.TAH@gmail.com so that those working the issue on the Hill will have a copy they can give the Senator’s offices.

If we lose the funding for these two vital programs at the Department of Education in FY’11 it will be very difficult to get that funding back in FY’12 appropriations and the ESEA re-authorization. That is why it is vital you send your e-letters to your US Senators today! Thank You!