Save Teaching American History Grants
Contact Your United States Senator Now!

February 17, 2011

The Organization of American Historians is asking you to email letters to your U.S. Senators as soon as possible regarding saving the Teaching American History (TAH) Grant 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, FY2011.

It is absolutely vital that OAH members send this letter (or e-mail) to their U.S. senator as soon as possible to save TAH and Civics funding in FY’11. The U.S. House of Representatives is currently targeting 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.

Please find below a link to a sample letter. 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.”

Please feel free to put that in your own words, but be sure to get the points in that paragraph across.

Also linked below is the list of relevant staff for education and/or appropriations to each of your U.S. Senators. Please e-mail your letter to the relevant aides to your Senators (separately). Please also copy your letters to so that those working the issue on Capitol Hill will have a copy they can give the Senator’s offices.

Please address your letters to the Senator(s), place the aide’s name in the attention line, example:

Senator Jon Doe
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510 (Note all senate address have this zip code)
ATTN: Sally Smith

(Salutation: Dear Senator Doe: )

And send your letter to the Senator’s aide at the email address provided. Again, please be sure to send a copy to .

If we lose the funding for these two vital programs in FY’11 it will be very difficult to recapture its funding in FY’12 appropriations and ESEA re-authorization.

It is vital that you send your letters and e-mails to your U.S. Senators today!

Important Links

Sample Letter for U.S. Senators and their aides (.doc)
U.S. Senators and contact information for their education staff (pdf )