Calling All Voices for Social Studies - We Need You!
Calling All Voices for Social Studies - We Need You!
Our social studies community was thrilled when the Every Student Succeeds Act created multiple new competitive grants to support high-quality instruction in civics, economics, geography, and history. We were even more excited when Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma provided funding for those grants in his appropriations bill, even though that work still has not been finished by Congress. Now, we need to ask Congress to provide funding for those grants in both the FY 2017 and FY 2018 bills - and we seek your help to do it!
We need YOU to call or e-mail the legislative assistant who handles education appropriations for your Senators and your Representative to ask that Congress appropriate resources for high-quality education in civics, economics, geography, and history. There are two ways to do this:
1) Go to the NCSS Action Center. We have prepared a message that you can send to your Senators and your Representative by entering your name and zip code. If you wish, you can edit the letter before you send it. This is quick and easy - it takes less than five minutes. While there, you can also easily Tweet, post on FaceBook or call your message to your Members of Congress. You can encourage family members, colleagues and friends to go to NCSS Action Center and provide their support for social studies, too! You don't have to be an NCSS member to use the NCSS Action Center (VoterVoice), or to support high-quality instruction in civics, economics, geography, and history.
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2) We have drafted a letter that you can edit and send directly to the staff people who advise your Senators and Representatives on education funding. This takes a little longer, but ensures that the right people see your message.
- If you do not know who your Members of Congress are, go to "Find Officials" at the NCSS Action Center and enter your zip code in the box. Then click on the hyperlinked name of the Federal Official for which you want more information and you will be able to access: you will contact, personal, other background, political, and staff member name information.
- If you know your Members but do not know who the education appropriations legislative assistant is, call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative’s or Senator’s office. Ask the receptionist for the name of the staffer who handles education appropriations. Then ask for the email address of that staffer.
- Adapt the draft letter found here with your name, zip code, and any local information about teaching civics, economics, geography or history that you care to share. Then email it to the education appropriations staffers for the Members of Congress who represent you.
- If the Congressional office tells you they have an appropriations form to fill out, follow the instructions on the form. Need help filling out the form? Let NCSS know and we’re happy to assist.
Make your voice heard today - and then share the VoterVoice link with your colleagues through e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. You can make a difference!