In this moment of intense polarization, Congress can help heal our nation by supporting the Civics Secures Democracy Act. Reintroduced this past month by a bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX), this landmark bill finally addresses what’s been neglected for nearly half a century in our schools: civic education.
The bill would authorize $1 billion annually over the next five years to support K-12 civic education and U.S. history so that every student in this country has the opportunity to acquire the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to become informed and engaged members of our constitutional democracy.
This country’s divides are exacerbated by a lack of the civic skills necessary to interact productively with the government and one another. We’ve reached a point at which too many people in the United States simply do not trust their government or its institutions. This mistrust leads people to believe hyperbole and politically motivated mistruths over fact and is particularly dangerous in a self-governed society of, for, and by the people.
Introduced in both the Senate and the House in 2020 by Coons and Cornyn and Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Tom Cole (R-OK), and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), the Civics Secures Democracy Act is a truly bipartisan effort to raise civics and history as a centerpiece of the school system alongside literacy and science, technology, engineering, and math. We have seen what the federal investment of some $50 per year per student in STEM-related subjects can do. Under this bill, the federal investment in civic education would grow from its level of 5 cents per year per student to around $18 per year per student over a five-year period.
Unsurprisingly, the bill itself has become a lesson in civics and how it can help us build a politics and culture that value unity.
When the bill was introduced, concerns were raised over curricular decisions and fiscal implications. In response, members of both parties did their civic duty and engaged in a monthslong process of dialogue and compromise to ensure the bill was acceptable across the aisle, affirming local control and ensuring the bill is deficit-neutral. This led to the bill’s recent reintroduction in the Senate with two Democrats, three Republican co-signers, and one independent — a true exercise in civil discourse.
This was a good faith effort on both sides of the aisle to create a bill that would help sustain and strengthen our constitutional democracy.
As former members of Congress, we want to issue a challenge to lawmakers and members of the public to review their work and learn firsthand about the bill.
The Civics Secures Democracy Act provides funding for states and school districts to build students’ foundational civic knowledge about civics and history and includes safeguards to ensure that schools focus on the fundamentals of civic education so that all students experience robust civic learning opportunities.
The bill forbids the imposition of any national curriculum and leaves decisions about what is taught and how it is taught to states and local school districts. It would provide nearly $600 million to states via grants based on Title I formulas. This means that both rural and urban districts, the schools that need the most funding, will benefit most. As formula-based grants, the Department of Education does not determine how these grants are distributed.
The Civics Secures Democracy Act invests in teachers’ professional development and ensures that educators have the content knowledge and pedagogical skills necessary to foster students’ civic development. It invests in training teachers in college and throughout their careers to improve foundational civic knowledge and classroom implementation. And through initiatives such as the Prince Hall Fellowship, the bill seeks to increase and diversify the pool of civics and history teachers.
And it requires that all states that receive grants participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress in civics and U.S. history. The grants are not tied to performance. Rather, participation in the NAEP is designed to understand students’ civic progress by state so we know where we need to improve.
In total, the Civics Secures Democracy Act would provide future generations with the tools they need to engage with and care for a constitutional democracy that we must bring back into good health.
The original co-signers of this bill should be applauded for putting country above party to help ensure that young Americans are prepared to sustain and strengthen the democracy they inherit.
We urge members of Congress to join in supporting this bill and investing in the future of our nation.
Chuck Hagel (R-NE) served as the 24th secretary of defense from February 2013 to February 2015 and served two terms in the Senate from 1997 to 2009. Doug Jones (D-AL) served as a senator from 2018 to 2021. He is the author of Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing That Changed the Course of Civil Rights.
