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California colleges and universities are still missing over $5 million worth of humanities grants, despite one federal district court order to return funds to University of California campuses. For at least 19 other campuses, the money remains out of reach as lawsuits continue to challenge the Trump administration’s abrupt halt of promised funding in April, when the National Endowment for the Humanities canceled over $10.2 million to already-awarded projects in California.
Now campuses must scramble for limited, alternative funding if they want to keep their projects alive.
For students like Kathleen Boswell, a teaching credential student at Cal State San Bernardino, the loss affects their professional advancement. Boswell and fellow teaching credential students were ready to participate in the first cohort of the “Inland Empire Project,” originally to launch this fall. This project would have provided training and curriculum for current and prospective K-12 teachers to use local history to talk about national topics, such as world wars. Boswell especially looked forward to testing new approaches to connect students with American history.
“Kids get really excited when history is in their grasp,” she said. “If they can connect to local history, they can connect to the broader scope of history. It’s a domino effect.”
President Trump announced plans to gut the National Endowment for the Humanities in his most-recent budget, starting with cutting two-thirds of the agency’s staff. The agency is the largest public funder of the humanities nationwide, created alongside the National Endowment for the Arts after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act into law in 1965. The law asserts that the arts are vital to democracy. Ever since, NEH awards represent a coveted prize in the humanities field.
Earlier this year, the agency announced major ideological shifts for the types of projects it would support to comply with the president’s executive orders. Those orders aim to eliminate federal funding for programs that promote such ideals as diversity, gender equity, and environmental justice.
History is not “Humanities”, it is a social science. Sounds like Miss Kathleen Boswell is being duped by political activist faculty(There is a whole “institute”:of leftists at San Bernardino State.) in to wasting time memorizing distorted history, as if it was real. There is interesting history of San Bernardino County that needs to be discussed, but the discussions not led by Marxists on the public payroll.
The purpose of the Trump cuts are to demonetize Marxists on the public payroll, who are teaching anti-Americanism and encouraging hate of fellow Americans., Let Soros or Singhman or Qatar fund there own parochial schools.,
Our country is in debt. Each year a 2 trillion deficit. Virtually none of these grants are critical. None of them will cure cancer. The money tree in the back yard needs to be cut down
Ah the President Lyndon B. Johnson syndrome that is a failure that keeps on giving.
LBJ could not fund his social funding for socialism and keeping blacks voting for him. and at the same time fund the world military posture of the USA and the effort in Vietnam.
So he did both and failed at all.
The country continues to suffer at the hands of failed national social policies putting the taxpayers in the unfortunate place of crushing national and state tax burdens.
Socialism costs are not sustainable. e.g. LBJ 1965….