A book discussion series in rural Idaho public libraries. A program for veterans that uses war memorials as a way to spark remembrance and connection. An event series showcasing America’s wide-ranging music traditions. Support for the Sitka Native Education Program in Alaska. Summer institutes for teachers nationwide. Modest stipends to support individual research. These are just a few of the programs at risk following the Department of Government Efficiency’s drastic decision last week to rescind more than 1,000 grants that had been awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Much of the DOGE rhetoric around program elimination has centered on returning control of taxpayer dollars to the states—but that is already how the NEH operates, through the mechanism of state and regional humanities councils. As Phoebe Stein, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, told me, funding for the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils is entirely community-controlled; it is grassroots work with significant oversight and accountability.