Conversations about post-2024 presidential election realities have touched on several issues, but civics education, or the lack thereof, has been the most common focus. Many contend its “absence” from public school curriculums is putting democracy at risk.
Some are working to change that reality.
Cable news shows and barbershop conversations alike rightly discuss the Democratic Party’s messaging issues, missing-in-action Black allies, and Black women hitting the pause button. But all those conversations eventually end on the same landing point – civics education.
But what exactly is civics education?
CIVICS ED
Civics education teaches citizens – whether children or adults – about their rights, responsibilities and roles in democratic processes. In fact, civics education teaches that there is no working democracy without citizens doing their part — educating themselves about the issues, voting, holding elected officials accountable, etc.
It involves the basics, like the three branches of government and the difference between local (city or county), state and federal elected officials (and their differing areas of responsibility). That last piece is important because it teaches students which elected offices and/or branches of government should be held responsible for which issues.
RELATED: What K-12 teachers can do to create future voters
WHY IMPORTANT
Dr. Annie Benifield, head of the League of Women Voters, views civic education as the glue holding America’s fragile democracy together.
“It’s critical that every citizen know their role in the community and know how government is in place to effectuate change based on the input they get from citizens,” said Benifield. “So, it’s very important.”
State Rep. Harold Dutton concurs.
“We’re doing our democracy a disservice when we don’t emphasize civics education, because civic education causes more people to participate in democracy,” he said. “And if more people participate in a democracy, it certainly comes out better for everybody.”
LOCAL EFFORTS TO REVIVE
In the spirit of Freedom Summer 1964, Houstonians are making moves to revitalize civics education for local youth and adults.
That 1964 summer, over 40 Freedom Schools opened in Mississippi, led primarily by members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality. Their mission: to empower Black residents and their children via civics education.
Benifield, along with political organizing legend Pam Gaskin, is hard at work organizing Voters College, a mobile civics education program that will deliver lessons to people wherever they gather.
“The Houston Voting Initiative (HVI) will be doing online webinars as well as in-person at community centers, churches and organizations across the city to get people more engaged, to let them know what the role of government is, what role as a citizen you play in the process of making public policy work. And especially with the upcoming legislative session beginning on Jan. 14 and the congressional session on Jan. 3,” Benifield.
The brainchild of Benifield and Gaskin, HVI, will utilize the power of the Black community, specifically Black women.
“We’re going to do [Voters College] as a collaborative with the Divine Four, the female part of the Divine Nine: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho,” said Gaskin, who has been involved in voter advocacy since she was a freshman at the University of Texas in 1966. “If the schools are not going to do it, darn it, we’re going to do it.”
IMPACT OF ‘ABSENCE’
Mary Fontenot, president of the Pleasantville Historical Society, sees clearly the damage done when civics education is missing.
“One of the scariest things I saw in this recent election was the lack of education and understanding of the political process,” said Fontenot. What hurts so badly is when you look at what’s happening in our Black and Brown communities, they’re uneducated. They don’t understand the importance of civic engagement, of getting involved, and what that means.
“It’s lost. And somehow, we’ve got to get it back, and real soon.”
Fontenot’s read of the situation is backed by the numbers.
One in four U.S. citizens, according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center 2016 survey, are unable to name the three branches of government.
This lack of basic knowledge about how government works initiates a negative snowball effect. Lack of civics knowledge facilitates the growing lack of trust and confidence citizens have in elected leadership. Case in point, as of March 2019, only 17% of Americans trust the government in Washington to do the right thing.
Lack of trust in government equates to a lack of engagement in civic behaviors (i.e. voting, holding elected officials accountable, actively staying informed about issues, and reduced participation in community organizations). This is especially true with younger “voters.”
In essence, those citizen actions that keep democracy alive, perish from lack of knowledge.
NOT ABSENT, BUT LOW QUALITY
Again, the oft-repeated refrain from Black people is that civics education has been removed from K-12 schools. But in reality, it hasn’t… kinda-sorta.
A 2017 National Education Association (NEA) report stated, “Until the 1960s, it was common for American high school students to have three separate courses in civics and government. But civics offerings were slashed as the curriculum narrowed over the ensuing decades.”
However, that report goes on to show that all 50 states require some form of instruction in civics and/or government, and nearly 90% of students take at least one civics class.
The NEA found that the issue is not that civics education has disappeared, but rather the quality of that education, like most things in America, has a marked racial divide.
“Only 25% of U.S. students reach the ‘proficient’ standard on the NAEP Civics Assessment. White, wealthy students are four to six times as likely as Black and Hispanic students from low-income households to exceed that level,” the NEA report stated.
Why? Because students in wealthier public school districts are far more likely to receive high-quality civics education than students in low-income and majority-minority schools. They not only receive standard civics lesson plans, that information is reinforced with experience-based learning opportunities like community service, guided debates, critical discussion of current events, and simulations of democratic processes. Black, Brown, and economically disadvantaged students regularly don’t receive those additional civics ed supports.
DN VIDEO: Voting advocates Pam Gaskin and Sharon Watkins Jones address civics education.
