As the convention that drafted the Constitution drew to a close in the summer of 1787, Benjamin Franklin famously counseled his fellow delegates that it would take hard work to “keep” the republic they were creating. Some 200 years later, President Ronald Reagan reiterated Franklin’s sobering assessment of what it takes to maintain constitutional government: Freedom “is a fragile thing … and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”
Today, the republic the founders created is at risk. As many have noted, our nation is deeply polarized, more seriously divided than at any time since the Civil War. Jonathan Haidt, who is not known for extreme views, predicts a “catastrophic failure of our democracy” because, he notes, “we just don’t know what happens when you drain all trust out of the system.”
Trust is draining out of our democracy. According to a poll published in February by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 16% think that our democracy is working very well. Many have lost faith in our democratic institutions and their ability to solve our problems. This is reflected in the fact that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there is widespread belief among many that the result of the 2020 presidential election was stolen in a process that was rife with fraud.
We are here, in part, because we have not heeded Franklin’s warning and Reagan’s admonition. We have not adequately defended our constitutional republic from within. Our education system has by and large abandoned civics and American history. This failure to teach civic education has contributed to a growing loss of appreciation for democracy. As a result, we now have a citizenry and electorate that are poorly prepared to understand, appreciate, and participate in our form of government and civic life.
It has been clear for several decades that we need a renewed, robust commitment to K-12 civic learning, but no one has stepped up to address the core problem: a lack of time, money, and resources devoted to civics. States have cut classroom time and resources devoted to these core subjects. Today, the federal government spends $50 per year per student to support teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math subjects, while only 5 cents per year per student on civics. The private and philanthropic sectors have not made civic and history education a high priority.
But there is good news to report. An emerging energy exists at every level to support a recommitment to K-12 civic education. This past summer, Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a survey of more than 1,000 in which he asked both Democrats and Republicans what they felt could heal this country’s divides: Civic education was the No. 1 choice overall. The public is asking for more and better civic education to heal our nation’s wounds. It is long past time to set aside our political differences in order to act upon these calls.
It is encouraging to see that states have declared K-12 civics education a priority and are moving bipartisan bills through their legislatures to make that priority clear. Likewise, there are a number of bipartisan efforts in Congress aimed at addressing the civic education crisis in our nation. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group including Sens. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, and Reps. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, and Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat introduced the Civics Secures Democracy Act.
This bill proposes to invest $1 billion in civic education through grants disbursed to local education agencies, civic education nonprofit groups, and institutions of higher education. If enacted, this bill will jump-start a desperately needed commitment to civics and will accomplish for civics education what has already been done, on a bipartisan basis, for STEM education over the last 60 years. A bipartisan commitment to civics education by the federal government and the states will spur heightened investment by the private sector.
When transmitting the newly drafted Constitution in 1787 to the president of the Confederation Congress, the Constitutional Convention delegates appended a letter signed by George Washington explaining that “the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.” The peculiarity of today’s political situation requires that same spirit of amity and mutual deference and concession. We must undertake the hard work of swiftly and forcefully reaffirming, on a bipartisan basis, that we understand that civics education is the bedrock of our constitutional republic.
Thomas B. Griffith served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 2005 to 2020. He now serves as special counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth.
