Graduate Consortium Funding & Awards

We understand that in-person class requirements and costly tuition often create barriers that prevent working teachers from pursuing graduate education in subjects that will strengthen their content expertise. The Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium aims to change that by offering virtual political science and history courses at low or no cost to working teachers. Our support varies by course and institution. Individual course pages will show cost information when enrollment opens. Degree and certificate costs are detailed on the host institution’s website, which we will link to our site.

Benjamin Rush Awards Program

Freedom can only exist in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal. – Benjamin Rush

Named for Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Revolutionary era educational reformer, physician, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, this awards program rewards ambitious teachers looking to build content expertise through graduate courses and certificates but lack institutional incentives to do so. 

Benjamin Rush understood education as a necessary step in cultivating civic virtue and securing self-government. He was an early advocate for democratizing education through public schools and universities that he believed would create smarter, more virtuous citizens. He carried out these principles in many ways, including by teaching medicine, establishing Dickinson College, and writing on the importance of educating women. 

The Benjamin Rush Awards Program honors Rush’s educational legacy by encouraging K-12 teachers working in schools or districts that do not offer salary incentives for graduate credits beyond a master’s degree to take courses through Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium.

The program offers awards of $1,000 to teachers who complete a graduate course offered through the Consortium and an additional $1,000 bonus for teachers who complete a certificate program. 

Teachers who meet all requirements listed below are eligible for the award:  

• Teach history, government, civics, social studies, or other closely related subject 
• Teach in a school or district that does not offer salary increases or other benefits for earning graduate credits outside of a master’s degree 
• Successfully complete a course or earn a certificate with passing grades in 2027 
• Complete one course at a time, and no more than four courses in a single calendar year 

Application details and deadlines will be available later this fall!