This is from the National
Washington update:
We now have some additional information
and some troubling news … The Senate appropriations committee recommends a program
increase of $15 million specifically for the President Bush’s "We the
People" initiative [to promote the teaching of history and civics in
schools]. While at first the increase might appear to be a cause for celebration,
the committee failed to embrace the administration’s recommendation of $25 million
and it made it clear that it wants the final design of the NEH’s "We the
People" initiative to reflect "congressional priorities" — meaning
pending legislation (S. 504) sponsored by Senator Lamar Alexander — the "American
History and Civics Education Act of 2003" — that recently passed the
Senate 90-0 and is currently pending in the House.
For what
little it’s worth, I have endorsed the
Alexander bill, which would mainly create summer academies for teachers and students.
However, it would be troubling if the necessary money came straight out of the
NEH budget.
According to the NCH, some in the "history community …
point out that the Alexander bill is heavily loaded with what is characterized
as ‘value-laden concepts,’ thus raising concerns about ‘the politicization of
the teaching of history.’" The ideal of value-free history is dubious, for
both epistemological and moral reasons. However, I can see the historians’ point
that it is dangerous for Congress to mandate particular values in the teaching
of history. At least, this should be done carefully and with public debate. I
also think that there is a difference between "civics" (which ought
to be heavily value-laden) and history (which needs to be more "objective").
This difference makes it problematic to lump history and civics together in the
same federal program with the same authorizing language.