The Controversy Behind Congress's $1 Billion Civics Bill

Civics education continues to be a polarizing issue in American culture. But according to Shawn Healy, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the education nonprofit iCivics, “the bias in our education system is not ideological.” As Healy sees it, “the problem is that outside of a few pockets, civics education is not universally offered in a high-quality way.”

He hopes that a recent move in the Senate will help strengthen the teaching of civics and U.S. history. On June 14, a group of bipartisan lawmakers led by Sens. Chris Coons and John Cornyn reintroduced the Civics Secures Democracy (CSD) Act, with four additional co-signers: Sens. Angus King, Mark Kelly, Jim Inhofe, and Bill Cassidy.

“As President Lincoln said, ours is a government of the People, by the People, and for the People, but we can’t govern ourselves if we don’t have knowledge of our foundational principles or our history,” Sen. Cornyn said. “This bill would help our schools inspire the next generation of public servants and teach all young Texans the value of freedom.”

Sen. Coons added, “By making historic investments in the history and civics education of our children, we will help ensure that the next generation of Americans have the tools they need to be good neighbors and citizens.” 

The CSD Act would provide $1 billion in grants annually over the next five years to support civics and U.S. history education. Healy says that the bill “makes a generational investment in K-12 civics” and “respects our federal system of education, as almost all the grant money goes to states and local school districts.” To qualify, states must participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress testing for civics and U.S. history and make the resulting testing data public.

“The bulk of funding will be determined by Title I formulas,” Healy notes. He also says that the CSD Act makes the kind of investment in civics that has been successful in promoting STEM fields. “It ensures a basic minimum of access to civic education that every student should have” – and especially helps urban and rural districts, which will be disproportionate beneficiaries of the grants.

Additionally, around $200 million in grants will be directed toward qualified nonprofits to offer programming that teaches foundational civic knowledge. And $150 million will be set aside for colleges and universities to set up teacher professional-development programs – with 35 percent of these funds going toward HBCUs and fellowships that aim to foster diversity among history and government teachers.

With concerns over rising inflation and the explosion of the national debt in recent decades, Healy notes that the bill is deficit-neutral and is funded from unspent Covid relief dollars.

The engine propelling this legislation is the CivXNow Coalition, a project of iCivics, which was founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. According to Louise Dubé, the executive director of iCivics, the coalition has worked for months – with members taking part in more than 75 constituent meetings with senators and representatives, especially in Republican offices – to get the bill passed by Congress.

“The bipartisan support for civic education that this bill represents is an incredible feat, and we are grateful to the cosponsors for reflecting the agreement of their constituents throughout the country that what is needed at this time is more high-quality civic education,” writes Dubé.

The reintroduced version of the CSD Act, however, has not changed the minds of critics such as Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars. Wood says the reintroduced version of the bill hides “an obvious ideological agenda”: the federal government will use it as a vehicle to impose critical race theory and “action civics” in America’s schools.

Wood notes that the funds will be allotted by the Secretary of Education, whose Department of Education recently put together a civics and history grant priority draft that “cited approvingly the 1619 Project and the work of Ibram X. Kendi.” Though the department ultimately “walked back those guidelines,” he says it “would encourage but not prioritize grants that incorporate ‘diverse’ perspectives.” “Any organization applying for these grants will know exactly what the Department of Education values,” Wood argues.

But Healy maintains that the “Civics Secures Democracy Act is not a Trojan horse,” reiterating that “all curricular decisions under the CSD Act would remain matters of state and local control.” He also adds that “many conservatives are quite supportive of the bill,” especially because it “expressly forbids the imposition of a national curriculum.” 

Dubé, Healy, and the CivXNow Coalition are now turning their attention to backing the reintroduction of a House version of the CSD Act this summer. Christopher Riano, president of the Center for Civic Education (and also a coalition member), has urged supporters to make phone calls and schedule meetings with House members in the weeks ahead.

“We look forward to the passage of this historic piece of legislation,” Dubé writes, “and the reinvestment in the civic mission of schools in order to sustain and strengthen our constitutional democracy.”