Last week, the Department of Government Efficiency took aim at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
NEH staffers say DOGE is recommending up to 80% cuts to staff and possibly canceling all grants made under the Biden Administration that have not been fully paid out.
Bill Goodman is the executive director of the Kentucky Humanities Council. He said many of their programs will take a major hit because of these cuts. He says the humanities include more than most people think.
“Everything that we do in daily life that contributes toward being a human being, the history of our commonwealth, the civic dialogue that we enjoy, reading a good book, literacy, presenting a book to a child.”
He said his organization relies heavily on funding from the NEH.
“Over the years we've been under 68 to 70 percent of our funding from NEH, we've been hovering around that for the last few years. Those are federal funds that are appropriated by Congress, in statute, since 1965.”
Goodman said while they do raise a lot of money through sponsors and donations, his organization relies too heavily on the federal government.
He said he understands the need to lessen some reliance on federal funds, but getting rid of so much at once could be devastating.
Goodman said the grant money for museums, cultural centers, universities, and colleges across the state has been frozen by DOGE.
He said the money that would be used by the Kentucky Humanities Council for operations is also no longer available.
Kentucky Humanities is a financial supporter of WEKU.
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