The Biden administration is blocking key federal funding earmarked under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 for schools with hunting and archery programs.
According to federal guidance circulated among hunting education groups and shared with Fox News Digital, the Department of Education determined that, under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year, school hunting and archery classes are precluded from receiving federal funding. The interpretation could impact millions of American children enrolled in such programs.
"It's a negative for children. As a former educator of 30-plus years, I was always trying to find a way to engage students," Tommy Floyd, the president of the National Archery in the Schools Program, told Fox News Digital in an interview. "In many communities, it's a shooting sport, and the skills from shooting sports, that help young people grow to be responsible adults. They also benefit from relationships with role models."
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In June 2022, the BSCA was passed with large majorities in the House and Senate before President Biden signed it into law. The push to pass the bill — which broadly seeks to promote "safer, more inclusive and positive" school environments, according to the Education Department — came after mass shootings at a grocery market in Buffalo, New York, and a school in Uvalde, Texas.
The legislation included an amendment to an ESEA subsection listing prohibited uses for federal school funding. That amendment prohibits ESEA funds from helping provide any person with a dangerous weapon or to provide "training in the use of a dangerous weapon."
"We were alarmed to learn recently that the Department of Education has misinterpreted the BCSA to require the defending of certain longstanding educational and enrichment programs — specifically, archery and hunter education classes — for thousands of children, who rely on these programs to develop life skills, learn firearm safety and build self-esteem," Cornyn and Tillis wrote to Cardona.
"The Department mistakenly believes that the BSCA precludes funding these enrichment programs," they continued. "Such an interpretation contradicts congressional intent and the text of the BSCA."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-withholding-key-funding-schools-hunting-archery-programs
