17 Jul
In May, the Massachusetts Senate approved a budget that includes a 25% increase to the Civics Project Trust Fund to $2.5 million. The Trust Fund supports curriculum and teacher professional development around civic education, both on a state and school district level.
With the additional funds voted unanimously by a 39-0 vote into the Senate budget, but not the House budget passed in April, a Conference Committee of six members (Senators Rodrigues, Friedman, and OâConnor and Representatives Michlewitz, Ferrante, and Smola) has been meeting for the last six weeks to decide whether the final budget will include the Senateâs $2.5 million allocation or the Houseâs $1.5 million allocation.
With the final vote imminent, please click here to take two minutes to send a quick note to encourage your local State Representative and state Senator to support civics in the Conference Committee by increasing funding for the Civic Project Trust Fund to $2.5 million. The budget process should wrap up in the next week, so send your letter today.
We all know how important civics is for our students. Yet many of our school systems donât have the support or resources to teach civics for Grades K-12.
Increased funding will help support:
- More Community Grants for local school systems to develop and implement quality civic education programming such as Children Discovering Justice
- Professional Learning Pathways, a statewide system for professional development for K-12 teachers that are teaching civics
- Increased access to Curriculum Resources and Support for civic education
- More Civic Showcases to highlight student-led civics projects
