Biden Administration Targets Funding for School Archery and Hunting Programs

Biden Administration Targets Funding for School Archery and Hunting Programs

Biden and his administration are dangerously malevolent, especially in how they target children.

The latest move by this gang of goons is take aim at 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.”

Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina pushed back on the interpretation of the amendment in a letter o Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. Archery and hunting clubs are also engaging in the battle to stop the threat to these classes.

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, according to Fox News.

“The Department mistakenly believes that the BSCA precludes funding these enrichment programs,” the senators said. “Such an interpretation contradicts congressional intent and the text of the BSCA.”

The Education Department’s decision to cut funding for school hunting and archery programs has sparked push-back from shooting clubs, hunting industry groups, and others.

“It is ironic that the U.S. Department of Education is actively denying young Americans the chance to educate themselves on basic firearm and hunting safety so that they can go afield knowing how to keep themselves, their friends, and family safe,” said Ben Cassidy, executive vice president at Safari Club International.

Archery is one of the fastest growing sports in the country.

In fact, a 2016 nationwide survey by Responsive Management, on behalf of the ATA [Archery Trade Association], found recreational archers were fueling much of the increase. The survey found 76% of archers shoot recreationally, while 35% are bowhunters who shoot only to prepare for hunting. Competitive archers make up 20% of the participants. (Some archers participate in multiple ways, so those percentages don’t total 100%.)

I began learning archery seriously just over a year ago. I am getting ready to compete in my first tournament. I can testify to the sense of self-confidence and independence gained from being able to handle a weapon well.

It is not hard to see this is an attempt to punish programs that are Second Amendment adjacent. Sadly, it appears to be working.

…Both archery and hunting, whether it’s bow hunting or hunting with a firearm, involve “weapons.” And weapons are bad. And since they can’t flatly ban these traditional common practices, they are falling back on the next tool in their kit. They will deny federal funding until the schools fall into compliance.

Sadly, that scheme is already working in a broad fashion. There are nearly 9,000 schools across the country that still offer hunter safety and archery classes. But many of them have already reported that they are curtailing those classes in the next semester in order to avoid losing their funding. So this shadow attack from the Democrats is working as intended.

Parents will now have to step up, one more time, to ensure their children have access to activities important to their families and communities. The tournament I am participating is in support of a scholarship fund directed toward supporting young archers.

I can only encourage others to support archery and hunting to use their time and talent to pass down the knowledge and skills to the next generation. Hopefully, we will see a new administration voted into office in 2024 that is less hostile toward children.

Voting in new Senators and congressional representatives would also be helpful.

The Senate Republicans who voted for this include Blunt (R-MO), Burr (R-NC), Capito (R-WV), Cassidy (R-LA), Collins (R-ME), Cornyn (R-TX), Ernst (R-IA), Graham (R-SC), McConnell (R-KY), Murkowski (R-AK), Portman (R-OH), Romney (R-UT), Tillis (R-NC), Toomey (R-PA), and Young (R-IN). Democrats from states with lots of hunters also voted for the legislation: Tester (D-MT) third highest state in terms of percent of the population with hunters, King (I-ME) comes from Maine that ranks fifth, Manchin (D-WV) from West Virginia that ranks ninth, and Baldwin (D-WI) from Wisconsin that ranks eleventh.

FIRST ARCHERY LESSON: I was blessed to be over-seeing the archery game booth at Ascension Catholic Parish. It gave me a chance to show young children some archery basics and encourage an interest in the sport. What I found most fascinating was this: Kids who got the arrow through… pic.twitter.com/LiMfLss15M

— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) June 3, 2023

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