Why It’s Critical to Engage Students on Political and Social Issues
Continuing a Tradition of Civics Excellence
With new institutes emerging at colleges and universities in Florida, Ohio, Utah, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere, civics education may be seeing a rebirth. “We need these civics centers at every institution of higher education in America,” says political theory professor Richard Avramenko. Avramenko, a Jack Miller Center faculty fellow, will be taking over as director of an already established civics institution in July: the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. He will be moving from the frigid winters of Wisconsin to the...
What is the Building Civic Bridges Act and Why Support it?
Civic Learning Week 2024
In Ohio, civic bridges over cultural divides
Since the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded constitutional protection of abortion a year ago, every state ballot measure affirming the right of women to make their own reproductive decisions has passed. Those states now include Ohio. Voters there rejected a proposal last night intended to make it harder to enshrine social issues like abortion in the state’s constitution.
Academic Statesmanship Is the Key to Our Civic Recovery
As numerous scholars have noted, America is engaged in a “Cold Civil War.” Political differences revolve around adhering to the original Constitution or rejecting it for a living Constitution hollowed of any enduring meaning. In such a situation, the role of civic education could provide a soothing balm to America’s inflamed political passions.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation that surveyed the nation’s public-school teachers identifies the complicated state of American civic education, while perhaps also pointing the way to hope and renewal.
Civics education is being held back by politics
In this moment of intense polarization, Congress can help heal our nation by supporting the Civics Secures Democracy Act. Reintroduced this past month by a bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX), this landmark bill finally addresses what’s been neglected for nearly half a century in our schools: civic education.
Bipartisan Group of Senators Hope to Fund Improved Civics Education
Is civics education a ‘right’? Rhode Island case tests theory.
An educated society is vital to democracy, but are schools obligated to teach students how government works? And who should decide that, the states or the courts? Both questions are at the heart of an appeals case in Boston.
Growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, Ahmed Sesay never had a class in civics. When he graduated from high school in 2019, he had to teach himself how to vote and pay his taxes.
More than Memorization: A New Civics Education Vision May Reduce Polarization
In the United States today, politics seems to be less about governing and more about finding the best way to demean the other side. The result: a partisan divide and an epidemic of affective polarization.