Washington, D.C. — Sporting groups across the U.S. are heavily criticizing the Biden Administration following a July 31 report that the president and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona intend to remove federal funding for hunter education and archery programs in public schools.
The de-funding stems from the administration’s interpretation of language in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) – a law passed by Congress and signed by Biden in 2022 following mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. The BSCA includes language prohibiting funding from providing “training in the use of a dangerous weapon.”
Funding for such programs was previously earmarked under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which provides funds for schools with hunting and archery programs. The ESEA provides federal aid for both elementary and secondary schools with an additional $1 billion now coming from the 2022 legislation.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation was just one of the groups who were quick to provide a critical response to Biden’s decision.
NSSF said in a statement issued by its General Counsel Larry Keane, that “while NSSF was neutral on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, there were several provisions we did support including enhancing school security. We have become increasingly concerned by the Biden administration’s implementation of the law.”
“For example,” the statement continued “the Department of Education and Secretary Cardona are blatantly misconstruing the law to withhold funding from schools that choose to teach beneficial courses like hunter safety and archery. Congress must hold Secretary Cardona and the department accountable for violating the letter and spirit of the law to unilaterally deny America’s students access to these valuable programs as part of the administration’s attack on the Second Amendment. Stopping hunter education courses that teach safe and responsible firearms handling makes our communities less, not more, safe and diminishes our ability of pass on to the next generation our nation’s cherished hunting and shooting sports heritage.”
National Archery in Schools Program president Tommy Floyd told Fox News that 1.3 million students from nearly 9,000 schools across 49 states take part in his group’s program.
“You’ve got every fish and wildlife agency out there working so hard to utilize every scrap of funding, not only for the safety and hunter education, but for the general understanding of why stewardship is so important when it comes to natural resources,” Floyd said.
The Washington, D.C. based Sportman’s Alliance claimed in a press release that they were considering legal action and that U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis recently wrote Secretary Cardona to register their grave disapproval of the Biden Administration decision.
The two senator’s letter said the misinterpretation “was neither the legislative intent of the Congress nor a plain reading of the text that leads to the conclusions drawn by the Administration.”
Statistics provided by NSSF said that as of 2022, 38 states have basic hunter education programs in schools and over 600,000 students completed the basic hunter-ed program in 2021.
Over 8,891 schools offer a NASP program, with over 1.3 million students each year participating. There is also a 50/50 male to female ratio of students in NASP programs.