Amid concern that funding to promote academic disciplines beyond reading, mathematics, and science is getting squeezed out of the federal budget, more than two dozen education organizations are banding together in a new coalition to more effectively make their case to policymakers.
Members of the new College, Career, and Citizenship Readiness Coalition represent subjects including the arts, social studies, history, foreign languages, health, and physical education.
In a statement, the coalition notes that Congress has recently made “deep cuts” in some program areas, including “completely eliminating funding for history, civics, geography, and economics programs.” In addition, President Barack Obama has repeatedly sought to consolidate federal programs targeting various disciplines into one competitive-grant program, in which activities previously funded individually would have to compete across disciplines for money, the group claims.
