Why It Matters: School is where students should be exposed to ideas that they aren’t exposed to at home – and with fewer hunters in the fields and woods, there are fewer hunters to learn from. Offering hunter education in schools stands to expose more prospective hunters to the thrills and tenets of our sporting-conservation heritage and therefore could increase the base of hunters contributing to wildlife management.
Highlights:
- Michigan HB 4285 would create a standardized course that schools could elect to offer, teaching hunter education during the school day.
- The course would count as both a credit towards graduation and the classroom requirement needed to obtain a hunting license.
- As a policy priority, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), has actively supported this concept in Michigan since the 2023 legislative session.
Michigan House Bill 4285 would require the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to cooperate with the Michigan Department of Education to craft a standardized curriculum that schools could adopt to teach hunter education. The course would offer credit towards graduation while simultaneously serving as the classroom requirement that is needed to earn a Michigan hunting license. Chief author Representative Curt VanderWall is a member of the Michigan Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus (Caucus) and has been championing the concept, alongside Caucus Co-Chair Senator Jon Bumstead, since the 2023 session.
CSF provided testimony in the House Committee on Natural Resources and Tourism last week in support of the bill, emphasizing that the legislation could expose kids who may not be introduced to hunting at home about the values of providing for themselves, how to safely handle a firearm, as well as teach them about hunters’ role in conservation – both from a funding and wildlife management perspective.
Last December, the Michigan Senate approved similar legislation nearly unanimously before the bill joined more than sixty other bills that did not make it across the finish line in the House due to political circumstances completely unrelated to the bill. Following the May hearing, which did not hold a vote, CSF is optimistic that the legislation maintains similar bipartisan support as last session’s version and will continue to advocate for its passage throughout the political process.
Related Policy
Summary In an effort to improve the quality of young people’s lives, several states have...
