A Cornucopia of "Traditional" American History Initiatives
In this edition we focus on the status of a number of legislative initiatives designed to strengthen the teaching of American history at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels—the "Graduate Opportunities in Higher Education Act of 2003," the National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" initiative, the "American History and Civics Education Act", and the "Higher Education for Freedom Act of 2003."
While Senator Robert C. Byrd's (D-WV) "Teaching American History" grant initiative is well entrenched, is competently administered by the Department of Education (ED), and continues to bring over $100 million a year to elementary and secondary school districts across the nation, in recent months, other well-meaning members of Congress have introduced other bills, also designed to strengthen the teaching of American history. Some efforts such as the National Endowment for the Humanities $25 million "We the People" initiative and the forthcoming $10 million amendment to Title VII of the Higher Education Act may well put an infusion of much needed funds to the teaching of history nationwide and to postsecondary history education in particular. Other bills, however, such as Senator Alexander's "American History and Civics Education Act of 2003" appear to be of marginal value.
The "Graduate Opportunities in Higher Education Act"
Legislation is in preparation that appropriates $10 million for a new program supporting history education in colleges and universities. The funds will likely be forthcoming as a result of the current effort to amend Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 by the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
The National Coalition for History has learned that language is slotted to be added to the "Graduate Opportunities in Higher Education Act of 2003" (H.R. 3076) that was introduced by Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI). The language in the bill will establish academic programs including graduate and undergraduate courses, seminars, and lectures, support of research and development of teaching materials for faculty development, and academic programs that support the teaching of "traditional American history." The bill is noncontroversial, has bipartisan support, and is expected to be enacted this Congress.
The "American History and Civics Education Act of 2003" and the NEH "We the People" Initiative
Senator Lamar Alexander's (R-TN) "American History and Civics Education Act of 2003" (S. 504), is a bill that establishes academies for elementary and secondary school teachers and students of American history and civics as well as a national clearinghouse of teachers (for more, see <http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2003aug/craig.html>). The bill continues to move forward but is on a collision course with the National Endowment for the Humanities' (NEH) $25 million "We the People" (WTP) initiative.
Originally, Senator Alexander envisioned that his bill would be administered by the NEH though it would be separately funded—it was to follow a parallel and complementary track to the NEH WTP initiative. Now, however, Alexander's bill threatens to absorb much of the funding included in both the House and Senate FY-2004 Interior appropriations bills for the Endowment's WTP history initiative.
President Bush's FY-2004 budget request for the NEH included $25 million in new monies for the WTP program. The House-passed version of the FY-2004 Interior department appropriation allocated $15 million for WTP; the parallel Senate Appropriations bill also included $15 million for teaching American history and civics but with somewhat ambiguous language calling for a distribution of funds between NEH's WTP program and the Alexander bill. While Alexander's bill passed the Senate, neither it nor the House companion legislation (HR 1078) introduced by Representative Roger Wicker (R-MS) has benefitted from a House hearing. Hill insiders report that Alexander shows little interest in seeing his bill modified or being subjected to a House hearing or to critical scrutiny by the professional history community. Most historians familiar with the bill's provisions embrace its broad objectives but consider aspects of the measure as flawed and problematic. At this writing Alexander's bill is stalled in the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
Freshman Senator Alexander introduced his measure in his maiden speech on the Senate floor in March 2003, and the Republican leadership in the Senate endorsed the bill, secured the bipartisan support of Senate colleagues, and rushed the proposal through a hearing that was hastily conducted by the Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions (HELP) and chaired by Mr. Alexander. Although Historian David McCullough testified in support of the bill, no historical organizations were invited to testify, nor did Alexander's staff express any desire to meet with representatives of the professional historical community after the hearing.
The bill reached the floor of the Senate where that body authorized expenditures of up to $25 million per year for fiscal years 2004 to 2005, including $14 million per year to fund up to 12 locally-based academies for students, and $7 million per year for up to 12 academies for teachers of American history and civics. It also sought to authorize $4 million to establish a national alliance of teachers of American history and civics thus duplicating the mission of several existing history-based organizations, including the National Council for History Education.
When the bill reached the House, the National Humanities Alliance as well as history organizations and other traditional supporters of NEH had their first opportunity to formally voice concerns about the provisions of S. 504 and the precedent it would establish within the agency, including: (1) the specific and narrow descriptions of the "traditional" history to be taught; (2) the fact that the proposed teacher academies imperfectly duplicates aspects of Senator Byrd's "Teaching American History" grant program currently administered by the DOE; (3) the efficiency of funding summer academies for students, versus additional academies for teachers, which have a much greater multiplier effect in reaching students over several years; (4) the creation of a vaguely-defined private organization funded by taxpayers that would seem to duplicate existing organizations; and finally (5) that the legislation constitutes the first authorization (albeit partial) of the NEH in ten years and is a major public policy initiative that is being conducted without adequate hearings or other opportunity for public debate.
In addition to the flaws in the Alexander bill, of great concern to virtually the entire humanities community was the proposed funding scheme for Alexander's initiative. As presently crafted, Alexander's bill diverts NEH funds from a vital and important "We the People" program to a program of marginal significance.
Unlike the Alexander bill, the WTP program was more thoughtfully conceived. Early in his chairmanship at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bruce Cole, in consultation with history and humanities professionals from a diverse spectrum of the political landscape as well as high level Bush administration officials, developed the "We the People" program to be an initiative aimed at improving the teaching of American history to American students on all levels. The initiative was to work as a parallel program—one with a slightly different emphasis than the Department of Education's "Teaching American History" initiative championed by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)—and WTP required no separate funding. Byrd's program is targeted to improve the teaching of history at the local secondary school level while the NEH program would earmark funds for a more highly visible secondary school history program at the national level. Most importantly, WTP funding was to cut across all program areas within the NEH.
The WTP initiative found strong support within the humanities community as an expanded effort within NEH to strengthen American history and civics education. Historians and other scholars, teachers, state humanities council leaders, librarians, museums professionals, and others rallied to the support of the comprehensive approach of the Administration's "We the People" initiative, since it would fund projects to strengthen K-12 education, museum and preservation programs, academic research and scholarship, and state council outreach to the public. Humanities organizations considered that the broad approach envisioned in the WTP program was critical to achieving increased knowledge and awareness of American history and civics for students, teachers, parents and Americans at all levels of learning throughout the country.
As soon as his bill passed the Senate, however, Hill insiders report that Senator Alexander changed the funding game plan. Although Alexander is said to have assured the NEH in March that he would not seek to divert WTP funding, once his bill cleared the Senate floor he began to press for a diversion of all or most of the WTP funds away from the WTP program to his initiative. Although S. 504 and H.R. 1078 each have impressive bipartisan support (47 cosponsors in the Senate and 220 cosponsors in the House) it is doubtful that members of Congress would have signed onto the bill had they known that the Senator's legislation was to be an alternative to the NEH WTP program.
At this writing (October 2003) a "discussion draft" of a revised Alexander bill is now circulating that would modify the Senate passed measure and solidify Alexander's funding scheme. The plan, apparently, is to pass the revised legislation in the House and then have the Senate agree to the House version in conference.
To counter this effort, recently the National Humanities Alliance, in collaboration with the American Association of Museums, the Association of American Universities, the Federation of State Humanities Councils, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, sent a letter urging interior conference negotiators on the FY-2004 Interior appropriations bill "to seek an outcome that accommodates the breadth and flexibility of the NEH "We the People" initiative, while also addressing the important elements of the proposed Alexander/Wicker legislation." The letters have been sent to members of the Interior appropriations subcommittee members of both houses of Congress (the conferees on the FY-2004 bill) and other members of Congress including the authorizing committees.
The National Coalition for History, on behalf of its member organizations, also sent letters to the Education Committee calling for a Congressional hearing on the Alexander bill. In addition, letters were sent to House and Senate Appropriations Committee members urging conferees to appropriate the full $25 million for the "We the People" program as originally requested by the administration, for a total FY-2004 budget of $152 million.
The "Higher Education for Freedom Act"
A final initiative that promises to impact the teaching of American history is Senator Judd Gregg's (R-NH) "Higher Education for Freedom Act" (S. 1515). On July 31, 2003, Senator Gregg (R-NH), who has long taken an interest in the teaching of American history, introduced his bill that seeks "to establish and strengthen post-secondary programs and courses in the subjects of traditional American history, free institutions, and Western civilization." Gregg's bill is the first Congressional measure in recent years designed to encourage the teaching of United States history and Western Civilization in American colleges and universities.
Senator Gregg introduced his bill in part because several recent studies suggest that most colleges and universities no longer require United States history or systematic study of Western civilization as a prerequisite to graduation, and he wanted to see that changed. The senator believes that "without a common civic memory . . . the people in the United States risk losing much of what it means to be an American, as well as the ability to fulfill the fundamental responsibilities of citizens in a democracy." His bill seeks to address this void.
Gregg's bill places emphasis on "content mastery" by making grants to academic and nonprofit institutions to promote and sustain postsecondary academic centers, institutions and programs targeted to undergraduates and graduates; to secondary school teachers in need of additional training; and to postsecondary faculty who wish to enhance subject matter expertise in what is characterized in the legislation as "traditional American history." The bill authorizes $140 million for fiscal year 2004 and "such sums as may be necessary for each of the succeeding five fiscal years." The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for consideration.
Bruce Craig is director of the National Coalition for History (NCH). He can be reached at: <rbcraig@historycoalition.org>. For the NCH, he edits the weekly electronic newsletter targeted to historians and archivists — the NCH Washington Update. A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net on the NCH's web page at <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~nch>. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu according to the following model: SUBSCRIBE H-NCH first name last name, institution.
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