Geography Education In Oregon

Dear Geographer

Geography education in Oregon needs your help.

Dr. Gwenda Rice (Western Oregon University) and I are going to Washington, DC in April to meet with our Senators and Representatives to urge them to support a bill—called the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act—that would authorize $15 million annually for teacher-training and materials in geographic education.  Did you know that Geography is the ONLY federally-recognized core subject that has not received dedicated federal funding since No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002? Not one dime. Yet, every other core subject receives support.

It will help our cause immensely if the Members of Congress that we meet with have already heard from their constituents about the importance of geography education, and about the existence of the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act.

We urge you to join us in a chorus of support for action by Congress. You don’t have to go to DC to help.

You can go to SpeakUpForGeography.org and send pre-written letters directly to your Senators and Representative. It takes only a minute to show support for K-12 geography education in our schools. By the time we visit Capitol Hill on April 19 our Members of Congress will know that we are speaking for a large and accomplished group of teachers, curriculum coordinators, university professors, and others who are making a difference here in the state.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to help us put geography “back on the map” with federal support. We are proud to represent the Oregon Geographic Alliance to our state leaders and are hopeful that we can correct the troubling oversight that leaves Geography alone without federal funding.

Please feel free to forward this message to others as well, and to contact either of us for further information.

Best wishes,

Oregon Geographic Alliance Coordinators
Teresa Bulman ([email protected])
Gwenda Rice ([email protected])