Congress Can’t Write Plainly  by Tom Reynolds

Per the Gateway Pundit: According to federal guidance circulated among hunting education groups and shared with Fox News Digital, the Department of Education determined that, under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year, school hunting and archery classes are precluded from receiving federal funding. The interpretation could impact millions of American children enrolled in such programs.  (Emphasis added.)

The actual law, [Section 8526 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

(20 U.S.C. 7906)] including the above change, reads as follows (the bold sections are the ones of concern)

7906. Prohibited uses of funds

No funds under this chapter may be used—

(1) for construction, renovation, or repair of any school facility, except as authorized under this chapter;

(2) for transportation unless otherwise authorized under this chapter;

(3) to develop or distribute materials, or operate programs or courses of instruction directed at youth, that are designed to promote or encourage sexual activity, whether homosexual or heterosexual;

(4) to distribute or to aid in the distribution by any organization of legally obscene materials to minors on school grounds;

(5) to provide sex education or HIV-prevention education in schools unless that instruction is age appropriate and includes the health benefits of abstinence;

(6) to operate a program of contraceptive distribution in schools; or

(7) for the provision to any person of a dangerous weapon, as defined in SECTION 930(G)(2) OF TITLE 18, or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.

This sounds like schools may not use funds to support things like archery and hunter education since they involve the use of a dangerous weapon.

But wait…

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas was a key person in getting the bill passed.  Blaze Media reports that: “…Cornyn and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina penned a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona this month stating that they believe the Department of Education is misinterpreting the BSCA provision regarding school funding. The senators noted that it was intended to prevent education funds from being used for school resource officer training, which is funded under a different provision. (Emphasis added.)

"We were alarmed to learn recently that the Department of Education has misinterpreted the BCSA to require the defunding 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."

"The Department mistakenly believes that the BSCA precludes funding these enrichment programs…Such an interpretation contradicts congressional intent and the text of the BSCA."

If Cornyn is correct and he is not C Y Aing, wouldn’t one think that Congress, with all its resources, should be able to write a simple statement that is clear and does not need interpretation (that’s called full employment for lawyers, of which John Cornyn is one.)

But what if Cornyn is C Y Aing and the statement does apply to archery and hunting?

It’s not as big a deal as made out to be.  It’s called the interchangeability (fungibility) of funding.  (It’s also called full employment for accountants.)

Any school that wants to continue funding these activities takes money out of an ‘approved’ area and transfers it to fund archery and hunting.  Then, the school uses the federal money that can’t be used for archery and hunting for that ‘approved’ area that was just shorted.

The only problem with the latter is that it gives liberal school administrators the ability to kill archery and hunting by not doing anything. 

SCOPE will keep you informed as we learn more.