Washington, D.C. – Sports groups across the United States are sharply criticizing the Biden administration following a July 31 report that the president and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona intend to withdraw federal funding for hunter education and archery programs in public schools.
The defunding stems from the administration’s interpretation of language in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the law passed by Congress and signed by Biden in 2022 following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. The BSCA Act includes language prohibiting funding for “training in the use of dangerous weapons.”
Funding for such programs was previously appropriated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which provides funds for schools with hunting and archery programs. ESEA provides federal aid to both elementary and secondary schools, with an additional $1 billion currently coming from the 2022 legislation.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation was just one of the groups that quickly reacted critically to Biden’s decision.
NSSF said in a statement issued by its general counsel Larry Keane that “while NSSF remained neutral on the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we supported several provisions, including increasing school security. We are increasingly concerned about the Biden administration’s implementation of the law.”
“For example,” the statement continued, “the Department of Education and Secretary Cardona are grossly misinterpreting the law by prohibiting funding for schools that choose to teach beneficial courses such as hunter safety and archery. Congress must hold Secretary Cardona and the Department accountable for violating the letter and spirit of the law by unilaterally denying American students access to these valuable programs as part of the Administration’s attack on the Second Amendment. Discontinuing hunter education courses that teach the secure and responsible apply of firearms makes our communities less, not more, secure and limits our ability to pass on our nation’s valuable hunting and shooting heritage to the next generation.” .
National school archery program President Tommy Floyd told Fox News that his group’s program involves 1.3 million students from nearly 9,000 schools in 49 states.
“Every fish and wildlife agency works so hard to use every ounce of funding, not only for hunter safety and education, but also for the overall understanding of why natural resource management is so important,” Floyd said.
– says the Sportman’s Alliance based in Washington press release that they are considering legal action and that U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis recently wrote to Secretary Cardona to express their powerful disapproval of the Biden Administration’s decision.
The two senators’ letter said the misinterpretation “was neither the legislative intent of Congress nor a simple reading of the text that leads to the conclusions reached by the Administration.”
Statistics provided by NSSF indicate that as of 2022, 38 states have basic hunting education programs in schools, and in 2021, over 600,000 students completed the basic hunting education program.
More than 8,891 schools offer NASP, with more than 1.3 million students participating each year. NASP programs have a 50/50 male to female student ratio.
