Editing Robert Byrd (section)

===Scholarships and TAH History Grants===
{{Main|Teachinghistory.org}}
In 1969, Byrd launched a Scholastic Recognition Award; he also began to present a savings bond to valedictorians from [[Secondary education in the United States|high schools]]—public and private—in West Virginia. In 1985 Congress approved the nation's only merit-based scholarship program funded through the [[U.S. Department of Education]], a program which Congress later named in Byrd's honor. The [[Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program]] initially comprised a one-year, $1,500 award to students with "outstanding academic achievement" who had been accepted at a college or university. In 1993, the program began providing four-year scholarships.<ref name="byrd_education"/>

In 2002 Byrd secured unanimous approval for a major national initiative to strengthen the teaching of "traditional [[History of the United States|American history]]" in K-12 public schools.<ref>{{Cite journal | author=Miriam E. Hauss | title=Senator Byrd to Receive the AHA's Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for Civil Service | date=December 2003 | publisher=[[American Historical Association]] | url=http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/Issues/2003/0312/0312new2.cfm | access-date=January 25, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060402023356/http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/Issues/2003/0312/0312new2.cfm | archive-date=April 2, 2006 | url-status=live }}</ref> The Department of Education competitively awards $50 to {{Nowrap|$120 million}} a year to school districts (in amounts of about $500,000 to {{Nowrap|$1 million}}). The money goes to teacher training programs that are geared to improving the knowledge of history teachers.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Teaching American History Program Announcement | publisher=United States Department of Education | date=March 6, 2009 | url=http://www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/index.html | access-date=September 27, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926122323/http://www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/index.html | archive-date=September 26, 2006 | url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011]] eliminated funding for the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iduesbyrd/funding.html |title=Funding Status – Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program |publisher=.ed.gov |date=September 24, 2012 |access-date=January 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029074017/http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iduesbyrd/funding.html |archive-date=October 29, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Rachel G. Ragland and Kelly A. Woestman, eds., ''The Teaching American History Project: Lessons for History Educators and Historians'' (2009)  [https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-American-History-Project-Historians/dp/0415988829/ excerpts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418075026/https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-American-History-Project-Historians/dp/0415988829 |date=April 18, 2019 }}</ref>