New Dept of Education grant enables children to study founding documents, learn U.S. history

In honor of the nation’s 250th birthday, the U.S. Department of Education will enable students to learn American history through a new grant program.

“This new program will fund seminars that equip educators and students with the knowledge and civic values needed to uphold the freedoms we enjoy,” Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Hayley Sanon said in a Department of Education news release.

“As our nation’s 250th birthday approaches, the Department of Education is providing grantees with an opportunity to celebrate the roots of our constitutional republic and teach students about America’s Founding principles and the responsibilities of citizenship,” Sanon said.

The purpose of this discretionary grant program – the American History and Civics Seminars grant – "is to promote new and existing evidence-based strategies to encourage innovative American history, civics and government, and geography instruction,” according to a Federal Register notice on the subject.

The Department of Education’s release said that seminars receiving the grant “must study the American political tradition (ideas, traditions, institutions, and texts essential to American constitutional government and American history) with a focus on the first principles of the Founding, their inclusion in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.”

“Applicants must design and implement evidence-based approaches to seminars for educators or students specifically focused on American history and civics that directly commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Founding of the United States,” the release said.

According to the release, “the Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) intends to conduct informational webinars to provide technical assistance to interested applicants for grants under the AHC-Seminars program.”

“Priority will be given to applicants from institutions of higher education that have established independent academic units dedicated to civic thought, constitutional studies, American history, political leadership, and free market economics,” the release explained.

When asked for comment, the Department of Education referred The Center Square to its press release as well as a Federal Register notice.

Other 250th anniversary celebrations that have taken place in the nation include an army parade and firework show, as The Center Square reported.

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, thousands gathered in Washington D.C. for a day “dedicated to honoring the service and sacrifices of the brave men and women whose calling is to defend the nation,” The Center Square reported.

Future plans to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday include remarks by President Donald Trump at Iowa’s State Fair, a creative contest for those in third through twelfth grade, and more – with not all events yet announced.