On July 31, the Biden Administration confirmed to Fox News that they had defunded hunter education and archery programs in public schools as a result of their interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) signed in 2022. The BSCA includes language that withdraws funding from schools “training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” The Department of Education claims their “funding decisions were based on the plain text interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA),” according to the article from Fox News. 

In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in early July, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the agency is misunderstanding the provision which they stated was put in the BSCA to withdraw education funds for programs training school resource officers, not for hunting and archery programs. School resource officer training was funded under a separate provision.

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

Funding for schools providing these programs falls under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Cornyn and Tillis wrote to Cardona that they have received complaints from schools that had shooting sport courses defunded. They stated that hunting and archery classes fall “well within” the range of activities that encourage safe and healthy students which the ESEA explicitly funds.