The Renaissance of Civic Education

Over the last 60 years, there has been unconscionable neglect of civics and American history at both the K-12 and university levels.

Surveys by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) show that fewer than 20% of colleges nationwide require an American history or government course for graduation. Unsurprisingly, this deficit has made its way into the training of teachers too. Future K-12 teachers are unlikely to learn the basic facts about our founding principles and our long history of working toward that more perfect Union our founders envisioned.

Fortunately, more and more public universities are doing their part to reverse this trend.

In 2016, the Arizona legislature created the School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. This school has become a valuable training ground for ASU students seeking a thorough understanding of our nation’s governing institutions and the responsibilities of citizenship in a free society while being exposed to a diversity of viewpoints.

The ASU model has since been replicated at 13 universities in several other states.

Founded a year ago, the School of Civic Life and Leadership at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, which ACTA helped create, has already gained national attention. It was deservedly featured in articles in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. And for good reason.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL) offers a civic life and leadership minor that introduces students to key ideas from philosophy, history, political science, and economics. It helps prepare them for participating in consequential policy discussions and debates.

SCiLL is explicitly dedicated to promoting civil discourse and free speech and inculcating the responsibilities of informed, engaged citizenship. UNC-Chapel Hill students who do not participate in SCiLL classes nevertheless benefit from its speaker series and Program for Public Discourse.

Programs such as these consist of a separate academic unit within the university, supported by the state and private donors. Crucially, the head of that unit has hiring authority and almost always reports directly to the provost or president of the university.

New institutes like SCiLL not only educate undergraduates but are also developing M.A. and Ph.D. programs. And they have already reached out to train the K-12 social studies teachers in their regions so that those teachers will be better able to teach their own pupils.

The goal is to continue expanding these programs in states across the country.

The Tennessee General Assembly answered Governor Bill Lee’s call to establish an institute devoted to teaching informed patriotism with a $6 million initial appropriation by an overwhelming bipartisan vote.

The Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville offers minor and certificate programs in American civics and constitutional studies, as well as many other events, programs, and scholarships for students. It also features outstanding professional development programs for secondary school teachers. It is already drawing some of the best and brightest students – especially those who want to make a positive difference but previously could not find a constructive, nonpartisan path to pursue this passion.

Through the efforts of Ohio state senators Jerry Cirino and Rob McColley, the State of Ohio has made the largest investment yet – $24 million – for the creation of civic education centers at five public universities in the state. Ohio State University, for example, now has the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. Four other state universities are rapidly coming online with programs devoted to the American constitutional life.

And at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the Hamilton Center is on its way to hiring 50 professors, including distinguished faculty recruited from elite institutions who have grown weary of having their views be marginalized.

Young professors whose interests in the American founding, constitutional and diplomatic history, and our roots in Western civilization are often left without prospects in academe. Now, however, they are finding excellent opportunities to teach at civic centers being established throughout the country. And thousands of public university students now have a chance to get a world-class education in citizen leadership that will serve them well across an array of career pathways.

Nonprofit organizations and their donors can play a valuable part in advancing efforts like these.

For example, ACTA makes the case to trustees and legislatures that establishing these centers must be a priority.

And for many years, the Jack Miller Center has invested in training and helping young professors in their careers and supporting established professors, including funding for outstanding postdoctoral fellows in American political thought and political theory.

Today, the Jack Miller Center’s academic network includes over 1,200 professors on over 300 campuses around the country.  A number of them now hold faculty and senior leadership positions in these new schools and institutes of civic thought and leadership.

These new institutes are devoted to teaching the whole story of America. As the late Bruce Cole, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and former member of the Jack Miller Center’s Board of Directors, said, they will provide “a story of the center and the margins, the peaks and the valleys.” In contrast to what sadly so often happens on campus, they not only recognize the flaws that must be mended but also the American achievements that inspire the world.

We have an opportunity with new generations of students to create informed patriots and renew their search for the promise of achieving the American dream. Working together, the states, the organizations working in this field, and donors can make this civics renaissance become a reality across the country.

This article was first published by RealClear Education on November 04, 2024.