DOGE cuts impact non-profit that gives books to students
Part of the South Dakota Humanities Council's mission is to deliver humanities programming like local history, culture and storytelling to the people of South Dakota.
State to seek possible land sites for prison project
Executive director Christina Oey says there was little warning that funding for the organization was on the chopping block, and now the non-profit needs to make cuts of its own.
'The first one that to me personally is most concerning is our young readers book. Our Young Readers Program provides a free book to every single third grader in the state of South Dakota. And so with these cuts, we don't know if that's going to happen anymore,' Oey said.
Oey says it gets $950,000 from the federal government which is 73% of its operating budget. The rest comes from donations.
'Unfortunately it's impossible to make that up for this fiscal year through private donations. And even if they do come through this year, we don't know what's going to happen next year,' Oey said.Jennifer Widman oversees the South Dakota Center for the Book, which is part of the SD Humanities Council. She says the cut will leave a gap in outreach efforts the organization does like the annual Festival of Books.
'Everybody is for efficient government. But what we do with money here in the state and the way that we deliver it to every corner of the state to as many people as we can from all walks of life, for free or almost free in every case, those projects, those programs just don't exist anywhere else,' Widman said.
Both Oey and Widman say the cut will hit young people the hardest.
'I think that the literary community in South Dakota would feel it very strongly. And what we think of as the future literary community, the young readers, it's an even worse impact for them,' Widman said.'I challenge you to go into a third-grade classroom where you can see their faces light up when they receive that book. And it really does make an impact on literacy rates in South Dakota,' Oey said. 'The other big one that's concerning us is our annual Festival of Books. Every year we have between 5,000 to 7,000 attendees from across the state and out of the state that attend to come together to celebrate literacy,' Oey said.
South Dakota Humanities Council says since the cut, its been in contact with U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson's office. He says he's going to bring up the non-profit's concerns to the White House.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
11-08-2025
- The Hill
Democracy's classroom is disappearing
Judge Colleen McMahon followed other judges by taking a stand on behalf of freedom and democracy. On July 25, the U.S. District judge for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction stopping the mass cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants to members of the Authors Guild. McMahon found that 'the defendants terminated the grants …. based on the recipients' perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas.' She recognized the essential role the NEH plays in supporting the infrastructure of democracy in America's schools, museums, libraries, and cultural life. The Trump administration's attack on that infrastructure has gone well beyond its cancellation of grants to writers. Last April, NEH rescinded grants made to support its program of summer institutes for K-12 teachers, which over the last decade have reached more than 11,000 teachers nationwide. On August 6, a federal district judge ruled unconstitutional the president's unilateral termination of federal-state partnership grants made by NEH. But no such rulings have been made about the summer institutes. Since its inception, the endowment has funded summer institutes at colleges and universities for K-12 teachers that have performed an essential civic function: bringing educators together across regions and ideologies to model the habits of mind that sustain a healthy democracy. But not this summer. Without these institutes, we lose a key resource that sustains democratic understanding in American education. People who care about protecting democracy need to make sure that what NEH used to do to help teachers acquire skills in democratic pedagogy is not lost. Teaching those skills is not just the province of civics teachers. It should be a pervasive part of the curriculum in literature, history, social studies, and, yes, even math and science classes. As John Dewey wrote more than a century ago, 'Were all instructors to realize that the quality of mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth something hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be worked.' Today, K-12 teachers are often restricted from fostering such growth as they attend to the ever-bureaucratized tasks heaped upon them by school districts and administrators. They largely operate under a technocratic logic that prioritizes efficiency and standardization. Teachers, like students, need experiences where they can escape those constraints. We know that when teachers have the opportunity to read deeply, think critically, engage in sustained dialogue about complex human questions, and reflect from the perspective of the learner, they become better educators. That is what NEH programs used to provide. By design, they offered common ground by re-prioritizing how to think over what to think and incentivizing exploration in the classroom without fear of censure. The rapid evaporation of this opportunity to find common ground has been well documented beyond the realm of education. That is why it is urgent that our nation's educators be given structured opportunities to practice civil discourse and encounter diverse perspectives. If we want the next generation to learn how to disagree without dehumanizing—and to embody what philosopher John Rawls called 'reasonable pluralism' — it's essential that we start with our nation's teachers. They need to be given the chance to learn how to cultivate the habits of democratic thinking in their classrooms and schools. If the idea sounds pollyannish in this fractured moment, the principles are attractively simple. They resemble the habits that teachers of any subject would want students to bring to their classrooms. Democratic thinking requires telling the truth as you know it, but it in a way that can be heard by others who don't already agree with you. The goal is to give interlocutors a place to stand, not to just assert my truth and expect others simply to assent to it. It also requires listening with curiosity — the obligation of democratic citizens is to 'catch ideas in flight' and make them better — and practicing empathy before criticism. Democracy thrives when its citizens do not rush to righteousness but instead withhold judgment until they have achieved a thorough understanding of the positions of others whose ideas or actions they wish to judge. Finally, democratic thinking requires humility, for democracy is as much about losing as winning. The phrase 'I could be wrong, but…' captures that kind of humility. To be clear, this is not a plea for enlightened centrism. We affirm that sometimes strong partisan positions are desirable and even necessary in response to critical circumstances. But what we also know is that no one is convinced to change their perspective when they are berated and belittled. Democratic thinking requires understanding that even on the deepest issues, people of good will can disagree. That is perhaps the most valuable lesson teachers can offer. Asking students to think democratically is harder, but also more important than ever. If we are serious about safeguarding our democratic commitments for future generations, teachers should have opportunities to rediscover what it means to think freely, disagree respectfully, and educate for democracy. Whether through the NEH or in other venues, we must fight to preserve such opportunities for our nation's teachers. Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. Roy Blumenfeld is the director of City Semester, a civic engagement semester program at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
Los Angeles Times
07-08-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Judge issues temporary injunction against Trump administration cancellation of humanities grants
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Oregon issued an injunction Wednesday temporarily stopping the mass cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants to humanities councils around the country, saying the cancellations were likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued a temporary stay on action taken in April by the National Endowment for the Humanities, saying the claims made by plaintiffs in the case were 'likely to succeed on their claim that the withholding of the funds at issue in this case is unconstitutional.' Defendants' conduct reflects a 'deliberate decision to flout Congressional command and refuse to spend appropriated funds,' the opinion said, noting, 'The United States Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President.' The so-called Department of Government Efficiency and the National Endowment for the Humanities canceled dozens of grants to state and local humanities' councils in April as part of President Trump's cost-cutting efforts. The Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Oregon Council for the Humanities filed suit in May to reverse the local funding cuts. Adam Davis, executive director of the Oregon council, called the decision 'heartening and motivating. This is one step — among many that are needed — in the large, ongoing endeavor to knit our communities and the country closer together.' The National Endowment for the Humanities did not immediately answer a phone call or email for comment. Simon said in issuing the stay that the record contained 'unrebutted evidence of irreparable harms,' noting that 'when these programs are cancelled, there can be no do over and no redress.' The judge rejected a request by the NEH that the injunction be stayed. He said the government had not met the standards for such a stay. Simon said the defendants were 'likely violating statutory obligations and principles of separation of powers that have existed for decades.' The order also stopped the government from 'disbursing, encumbering, loaning, granting, or otherwise disposing of the funds committed to Plaintiffs.' Fields writes for the Associated Press.
Chicago Tribune
26-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Judge issues temporary injunction against Trump administration cancellation of humanities grants
WASHINGTON — A district court judge in New York issued a preliminary injunction Friday night stopping the mass cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants to members of the Authors Guild on the grounds that their First Amendment rights were violated. Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York stayed the mass cancellations of grants previously awarded to guild members and ordered that any funds associated with the grants not be reobligated until a trial on the merits of the case is held. In reaching her decision, the judge said the 'defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients' perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas. This is most evident by the citation in the Termination Notices to executive orders purporting to combat 'Radical Indoctrination' and 'Radical … DEI Programs,' and to further 'Biological Truth.'' One of the grants was to a professor writing a book on the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and 1980s. On a spreadsheet entitled 'Copy of NEH Active Grants,' the government flagged the work as being connected to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, McMahon wrote. The judge said several other history projects on the spreadsheet were also canceled in part because of their connection to DEI-related subjects. 'Far be it from this Court to deny the right of the Administration to focus NEH priorities on American history and exceptionalism as the year of our semiquincentennial approaches,' McMahon said. 'Such refocusing is ordinarily a matter of agency discretion. But agency discretion does not include discretion to violate the First Amendment. Nor does not give the Government the right to edit history.' McMahon said some of the grantees lost grants simply because they had received them during the Biden administration. The Guild filed a class action lawsuit in May against the NEH and the Department of Government Efficiency for terminating grants that had already been appropriated by Congress. The humanities groups' lawsuit said DOGE brought the core work of the humanities councils 'to a screeching halt' this spring when it terminated its grant program. 'The decision is a heartening reminder that courts remain a bastion against government overreach and will step in to protect fundamental rights and liberties when they are blatantly threatened,' Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said Saturday. The lawsuit was among several filed by humanities groups and historical, research and library associations to try to stop funding cuts and the dissolution of federal agencies and organizations. McMahon noted her injunction is narrowly tailored 'to maintain the status quo until we can decide whether Plaintiffs are entitled to ultimate relief. It does nothing more.' The judge denied a temporary injunction request from the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as several of their claims in the lawsuit. Their case included the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association.
