A program that has sent millions of fourth graders and their families to national parks and other public lands since 2015, when the Every Kid In A Park program was launched by the Obama administration, could be ended by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to an organization that views the initiative as crucial to teaching youth the wonders of the outdoors and building tomorrow's public lands advocates and stewards.
"It’s an incredibly successful program that we support, of course," Jackie Ostfeld, founder and chair of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, said Wednesday evening during a phone call. "There are rumors that the secretary does intend to end the program, and there may be confirmation of that any day now.”
Interior and National Park Service staff did not respond Wednesday to questions about the fate of the program. However, back in March the Interior secretary told a Senate committee he viewed it as part of the reason the Park Service has a nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog.
"I've spent a lot of time in a (park) kiosk, and it's amazing, in our parks, which the maintenance (backlog) as you know, we're far behind," Secretary Zinke told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee while explaining the Trump administration's FY2019 budget proposal for the Interior Department. "But when you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth-graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there's not a whole lot of people that actually pay at our front door."
Under the program, fourth graders can visit the Every Kid in a Park website to obtain a free pass that provides access to federally managed lands and waters – including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries. The pass is valid each year from September through the end of the following August, and grants free entry for fourth graders and up to three accompanying adults (or an entire non-commerical vehicle for drive-in parks) at more than 2,000 sites across the country.
Every Kid in a Park has been part of a multi-pronged approach to inspire the next generation to discover all that the nation’s public lands and waters have to offer, including opportunities to be active, spend time with friends and family, and serve as living classrooms to build critical skills, the Park Service has said.
"I suspect because it's an Obama-era program and it's one of many programs that the administration is cancelling," Ms. Ostfeld replied when asked why the secretary wants to end the program. "I can’t think of any other reason why they would do that. It’s very popular, and costs next to nothing.”
While she didn't have an exact annual cost of the program, she said that during the first year or two she understood the administrative costs were around $100,000/year. At the same time, according to the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, the initiative has served as "a low-cost and popular public-private partnership that helps boost local economies while improving our children’s health and connections to nature. In the program’s first year, more than two million fourth graders downloaded the Every Kid pass. Over the first two years, nearly $5 million in private funding has been leveraged to support transportation costs for children from low-income schools across the United States."
Ms. Ostfeld said the program targets low-income families and seeks to build diversity in the ranks of park visitors. "The program is serving the purpose to make all people feel safe and welcome in our public lands," she said. "It's very clear that it’s not a priority for the secretary.”
"... It would be shameful to cancel such a successful program, when children today are spending less time outdoors than during any other time in U.S. history," she added. "Congress can overturn this misguided decision by moving swiftly to pass the bipartisan Every Kid Outdoors Act.”
The legislation Ms. Ostfeld referred to earlier this month gained unanimous, bipartisan support from the House Natural Resources Committee. However, it still must be acted upon by the entire House, as well as the Senate, and that could take months. The timing is a particular problem, she said, because there currently are no efforts to continue the Every Kid In A Park program for a fourth consecutive year, and getting it set up for the 2018-19 school year takes time.
"It would take the agency several months to prepare for the program," Ms. Ostfeld said.
The Every Kid In A Park program has been a major initiative of the National Park Foundation, which has raised private funds to support it.
In support of Every Kid in a Park, the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, is raising funds to help connect fourth graders to America’s public lands and waters through transportation grants. As part of the Foundation’s Open OutDoors for Kids program, the Every Kid in a Park transportation grants seek to remove barriers to accessing our nation’s public lands and waters, with a special focus on underserved and urban communities. With cutbacks in school funding for field trips, this strategic funding will help provide comprehensive access to all national parks. Transportation grants were recently awarded to the national park units participating in the program.
A wide array of programs across the country made possible through the Park Foundation can be found here.
The program also has been embraced by entities outside the federal government. Back in 2015 the concessionaire at the Badger Pass ski resort in Yosemite National Park said fourth graders who have received an Every Kid in a Park pass to the national parks can get a lift ticket by presenting their pass at the ski area.
At Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, the Estes Park Visitor Center encouraged fourth-graders to use their passes in Rocky Mountain National Park by presenting them with a free Estes Park backpack filled with goodies that could be used while visiting the area.
The Outdoor Foundation and Outdoor Industry Association in 2016 launched its Parks4Kids campaign to leverage the latest in crowd-funding technology to allow companies large and small in the outdoor industry and other sectors to raise money to fund local projects that connect young people with the country’s national parks. To kick-off the campaign, OIA and Outdoor Foundation pledged $250,000 – giving school and nonprofit partners a boost to their fundraising efforts and challenging others to join the effort.
“This program is unique because it recognizes that our industry is comprised of brands and retailers, large and small, who have varying resources but are united by wanting to support kids, families and schools in their local communities and in doing so increase participation in outdoor activities. Outdoor industry companies can bring this effort right into their local cities and towns by going online and sponsoring a field trip by their local 4th grade class. We hope everyone in the outdoor industry will donate to an individual or adopt a school and help every single 4th grader in America have a national park experience,” Amy Roberts, executive director of Outdoor Industry Association, said at the time.
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Comments
Let's get real.
This is the most overrated and overhyped program in the history of the National Park Service. Primarily a marketing tool and I believe the term "every kid in a park" was coined either by John Podesta or by the former NPS Deputy Director - External affiars in the Obama administration. If it ended tomorrow you wouldn't notice a difference.
There are no metrics to measure success and the agency will still focus many of its programs to the same age group. It seems to be a glorified transportation program.
oh how wrong you are! It makes a huge difference in the 4th grade child and their family that experienced our National Parks because of this program. A couple of years ago we camped next to the family of a 4th grader from Ohio that visited multiple National Parks on their travels to Glacier National Park! The stories that fourth grader, and her family shared with us over a campfire one evening was incredible. The excitement and knowledge she experienced in that 4th grade summer, can not be taught in a class room. The entire family was very grateful that this program gave them the opportunity. As Grandparents of a 1st grader and a 3 year old we are returning to Glacier National Park this summer to share with them a place we love....and in three years look forward to to him taking his family, and hopefully us, to the National Park of his choice. Blessed is the 4th grade child and their families.
Thank you Heather Swift.
The cost is not just the $100k admin but the foregone revenue from all the visits by the 4th grade families. That is probably a few million but "free" sounds better and it's a great lesson to teach the kids that Uncle Sam will take care of all their needs. No need to teach them what "deferred maintenance" means either.
With nearly half the households paying no federal income tax and the number who do that are funding their own government salaries we need to put an end to these taxpayer funded programs. Never mind the maintenance backlog, our country is drowning in debt. The real cost of this program is more likely to be north of $100 million over three years and that may be conservative.
There is no way to police this so it is ripe for abuse.
It also comes at the expense of those working poor who actually DO pay taxes.
A "successful program"? It's pretty easy to give people something for free. What would be successful is if they increased "paying" visits.
Then again, the parks are overcrowded as it is so perhaps we should focus on reducing their popularity.
It is time to put an end to these not for profits who spend the majority of their time lobbying to spend taxpayer dollars while rewarding their directors with excessive salaries. It's pretty easy to spend other peoples money.
"...to promote and regulate the use of the...national parks...which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." National Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1.
Nowhere in that noble statement of purpose does it say "be a profit center".
Wild Places--
1) $100M over 3 years ($33M/yr) is more likely a substantial overestimate of the foregone revenue. The 2015 DOI IG report on NPS FLREA (rec fee) revenue has only 262K interagency annual passes purchased in 2012 for $21M/yr revenue before the every kid in a park program. Annual pass sales have gone up the last few years (in part from weekly pass fee increases, in part from increased visitation) so a simple subtraction would be unfair and wrong (falsely looking like the 4th grade program _increased_ annual pass revenue). My point is that there wasn't a lot of annual pass revenue to be cannibalized by the 4th grade passes, and less than 5% of the parties visiting parks include a 4th grader to begin with, whether with annual passes or trip entrance fees.
2) The program was meant to be policed, but the implementation by NPS and the other agencies was abysmal. The program was designed to be driven by schools: 4th grade classes doing simple park or forest activities, then all students getting the vouchers for passes. They added scouts & church groups and any other organized age-based groups, and had a process for individual requests to cover home schooled kids. But the outreach to schools was abysmal: information was sent to (nearly) every school district. But the districts didn't forward to all elementary schools, let alone 4th grade teachers, PT(S)As, etc.. Instead, individual NPS & FS employees who knew elementary school teachers spread the word & handfuls of the brochures to those teachers, who spread it to their immediate colleagues. NPS folks at outreach events or school programs spread the word. For most of the time it was actually hard to find the information on the DOI or NPS websites, even if you knew to look for it. Nothing appeares to have improved based on lessons learned in the first year.
3) Talking with rangers from the entrance station and the visitor center, I'm surprised at how _little_ attempted cheating or abuse there is. At this park surrounded by a big city, they just don't see non-4th graders bringing the vouchers or requesting the passes. The interp rangers do several school programs each week tied into the state curriculum for 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders, and lots of junior ranger swearings. so they're petty good at both distinguishing grades by sight and asking a school question or 2 to confirm if they have doubts.
4) The goal is to increase _future_ paying visits by getting families to try a visit to a park or national forest or BLM land, so that some fraction of them will discover that they like hiking or camping or history. These are "free samples" to get some of the next generation hooked, and to try to include a broader set of citizens than just those who's parents grew up camping & visiting parks.
5) I'd bet you a good beer that most of the visits using the 4th grade passes are to local parks within an hour's drive: GOGA, GATE, SAMO, JOMU, SAFR, CABR, SAGU, BOHA, EVER, and lots of smaller National Monuments & Historic Sites. Saving on a $15-$30 entrance fee or even $80 annual pass isn't enough to trigger a trip to YELL or GLAC let alone Alaska., but works for a Saturday trip to a nearby park or run up the mountain to play in the snow for a day. Unfortunately, NPS doesn't break down how many vouchers were converted to passes in each park in any reporting I've seen, and I'm not about to poke around looking for such data. So leave this as a beer I think I'd win, but one that I might lose.
It is still a judgement/policy call on whether this program should be retained, fixed, or terminated. Free samples are a marketing strategy not an entitlement nor a core part of the organic act. The free annual passes for the families of active duty military are policy, too. [Senior passes are written into law.] I just wanted to get a bit more information in the discussion.
Nowhere in that noble statement of purpose does it say "and everything will be free"
Back in the day — Many teachers would work seasonally in parks and that solidified a connection to the parks and NPS. Those days are gone forever. Parks as Classrooms did many of the same things Every Kid in a Park has tried to do and it was a great effort in the 1990s. Whether this program is “eliminated” or not, it is still part of the mission to provide for the enjoyment of the parks to the public and enjoyment will still include 4th graders.
Make 4th grade great again!!!
MF--
While the ad hoc hiring of teachers as summer rangers seems to have declined (it gets harder and harder to hire seasonals), the Teacher-Ranger-Teacher program still exists. It takes school teachers and pays them as rangers for a summer or year, often leading and developing education programs, then they go back to their schools and include some park-based material in their classrooms. I know of 2 T-R-T partcipants who, after a couple of years back in the classroom, retired from teaching, then were hired as term interp rangers (terms can be hired on FLREA or "project" funding) for 20-30 hrs/week.
There's also a program funding busses for field trips to parks for schools with higher proportions of students elgible for reduced cost lunches (the simplest metric for schools without lots of PTA funding for supplements like field trips). Teachers spend 1 or 2 Saturdays (unpaid) at a workshop at the park, learning about the park and what aspects directly tie in to grade-specific curriculum. They then include that material in their classroom instruction, sometimes with a remote ranger live stream into the classroom. Then, the program funds the school bus for a day trip to the park, where the kids get to do things like use old loaner iPhones to make iNaturalist observations of plants and animals, and see the cultural structures with living history rangers & volunteers as guides. The students have been primed before the trip, and then get to do active things in the park, so it can be more fun than some field trips. I'm pretty sure the funding comes from partner organizations & foundations, not appropriated funds.
What's different about the Every Kid in a Park program is that it involves parents (and siblings), and national forests and FWS refuges and BLM lands as well as National Parks. It is much more of a "free sample" to get families with kids to try parks and hiking and camping. My sense is that at least where I live, it does get more families with parents who didn't grow up camping to visit a park or go up to the mountains for a day. I don't know what fraction then buy a pass the following year, and I don't think NPS, DOI, & FS even try to get data to estimate that rate. And it will be a decade or 2 before we might know how many of those 4th graders then visit & support parks as adults.
Tomp2, thanks for the added insight. I got a little caught up in the rhetoric quoted in the article and responded in kind.
"A program that has sent millions of fourth graders and their families to national parks and other public lands since 2015"
"In the program’s first year, more than two million fourth graders downloaded the Every Kid pass." implying that 2 million actually visited.
"It’s very popular, and costs next to nothing.”
I certainly understand the ambiguity in her statements but pushing back that if the 2 million passes downloaded were actually used (as implied) and conservatively just one adult accompanied those children that is 4 million times whatever entrance fee would have been collected. A rationale assumption would be that due to it's popularity the numbers would increase year over year.
Aside from the rhetoric, my only issue with this program (and others like it) is that taxpayers shouldn't be funding them especially when the parks are starving for cash.
I do support giving people an appreciation for the outdoors and nature just not with taxpayer money. And given the dramatic increases we have seen in park visitation I question if any program is needed at all.
Update: Friday June 8 DOI announced that the Every Kid in a Park 4th grade pass program will be extended for the school year starting Sept 1 2018.
I'm an empiricist; I wish they were collecting more & better data to evaluate the effectiveness as well as real costs of this program. EKiaP is a policy decision, just like the free annual passes for active duty military families. But it also is a marketing _strategy_. If it isn't effective in getting folks who otherwise would never visit a park or other federal recreation site to visit, but is primarily subsidizing families who would have visited anyway, then it's a bad strategy with substantial costs and little benefit, and should be fixed or ended. If the tiny biased slice that I see is more representative, with most recipients families that otherwise would not visit a park, then the costs in foregone revenue is smaller, and the gain of potential future paying customers and supporters is greater.
It must have been a quiet announcement, Tomp. Still awaiting official word here...
Kurt--
Yep; stealth almost. I don't see anything on nps.gov or doi.gov. But it was in E&E News Greenwire today:
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/06/08/stories/1060083943
...
The National Park Service made the announcement this morning.
"Secretary Zinke has reauthorized the Every Kid in a Park program and starting on September 1, 2018, the National Park Service will issue Every Kid in a Park passes for the upcoming school year while Congress considers more permanent proposals," said Jeremy Barnum, the Park Service's chief spokesman.
For months, many of its advocates feared that Zinke was preparing to pull the plug on the program, which the Obama administration began in 2015.
In March, Zinke told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that part of the Park Service's funding problems stemmed from free park admission for fourth-graders and various other groups.
"When you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth-graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there's not a whole lot of people that actually pay at our front door," Zinke told the senators.
...
In addition to the issue of whether taxpayers should be subsidizing this, it makes little sense to me to promote more visitation when many Parks can't handle the current levels. Perhaps if this program and others like it were restricted to the less visited parks it would make more sense.
More fear mongering proven to be wrong (as usual). After being proven wrong 100% of the time, every time, with your fear mongering about the President, how about trying to get back to the official mission of this website??
Printed Mission:
Since August 2005 National Parks Traveler has been the Internet’s only site dedicated to covering America’s National Park System and the National Park Service on a daily basis.
Current Mission
Since November 6, 2016, dedicated to fear-mongering and making stories up about the duly elected president of the United States, while ignoring the facts about the other presidential candidate already took donations and sold drilling rights as well as mining inside national lands