We Must Invest in Civics for America’s 250th
The second week of March is Civic Learning Week. It’s an annual observance marked by civics advocates with webinars, social media campaigns, and a big conference known as the National Forum, organized by the nonprofit iCivics. This year’s National Forum will take place in Philadelphia, as more than 600 civics leaders, educators, and students will gather to consider the theme of “Liberty and Learning: Civic Education at 250.”
Indeed, this year’s Civic Learning Week is an even bigger deal than usual, as we celebrate the nation’s quarter-millennium anniversary. Civics should be the top item on our national agenda.
Civic education should matter to every American. It is more than a set of facts that eighth graders should know for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (only 22 percent of eighth graders were proficient in civics, and 13 percent were proficient in history in the most recent scoring). Rather, civic education is best understood as a lifelong commitment to the study and practice of America’s distinctive political tradition of self-government.
For all that should give us reason for worry in our country, the good news is that momentum is quickly growing in the movement for what the Princeton-based Institute for Citizens and Scholars calls “civic preparedness.” At all levels of education, institutions and philanthropists are partnering to support a renewed focus on civics.
In the fall, the U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $153 million to university-based and nonprofit initiatives to design and implement civics literacy programs in K-12 classrooms and to hold seminars for the nation’s teaching force on “primary documents, constitutional study, historical field experiences, civil discourse, and American achievement.” This represents a welcome federal commitment to civic education in the run-up to the 250th celebration. Among the grantees are ambitious new civics programs at public universities like Arizona State University, Florida State University, and Utah Valley University, along with civic-focused private universities like Pepperdine University and American University. The National Endowment for the Humanities has similarly prioritized investments in public and educational programs for the nation’s 250th birthday.
In addition, major foundations and other philanthropic funders are stepping up to invest in civics. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported on $56 million in philanthropic commitments to civics from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Stand Together, and the Bezos Family Foundation. Stand Together is supporting the Civic Star Challenge, a collaboration between iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute to encourage student projects emphasizing themes from the Declaration of Independence. The Carnegie Corporation is supporting the Teaching America250 Teaching Awards at the Jack Miller Center, where I serve as president, to provide $5,000 awards for teacher-led projects focused on the Declaration of Independence in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
This is one among several projects we are tackling for the 250th at the Jack Miller Center, where we have been building a network of university professors who are focused on teaching America’s founding principles and history for two decades.
For America’s 250th, we are providing direct support to scholars in the Jack Miller Center network to help them organize campus conversations about the Declaration of Independence. These will include lecture series, reading groups, and debates— aimed at fitting the unique needs of campus communities. So far, we have committed to campus programs in 33 states and DC. We are partnering, for example, on a weeklong series of events at Arizona State University on the values of the Founding, a year-long undergraduate reading group on key primary sources of American political thought and their relation to the Declaration at Purdue University Fort Wayne, and an academic panel on the Declaration at the University of Georgia, at which students will question scholars regarding the Declaration while playing various historical figures. We look forward to building more partnerships with campuses and scholars in the months to come.
We’re also doing what we can to bring the civics movement together as we get ready to convene hundreds of leaders and educators for the National Summit on Civic Education, May 18-19, as we consider “The Words that Changed the World” on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. We’ll talk about the enduring impact of the Declaration and its importance for the future of American education.
As we celebrate America’s 250th, let’s all do our part to educate ourselves and the young people in our lives about the ideas that animate our country and fill our lives with opportunity. Let’s make civics the cause of the year.
