State Legislation … full-time staffing for education reform … publications from the NAS/Civics Alliance … All this and more in the latest Resolute …

State Legislation

The Iowa House passed House File 2544, which would reform Iowa’s K-12 social studies instruction along lines suggested by the Civics Alliance—and then a “legislative funnel” on bills to be considered for final passage seems to have eliminated it from consideration this year. Alas! But we’re delighted that the bill passed one house, and we will be working to have even more success in Iowa next year.

Legislation restricting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) has passed in Indiana and Alabama. State legislation or Board policies restricting DEI have now passed in 16 states; we can expect further legislation, both more intensively in existing states and spreading to further states.

It may be easier to pass reforms to higher education than to K-12. It may just be that K-12 and higher education reform come in cycles. In either case, we will be working to make sure that education reform continues at all levels.

Full-Time Staffing for Education Reform

The Goldwater Institute has hired a full-time civics education specialist for the Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy. In effect, this will be someone working full time for education reform focused on, well, everything the Civics Alliance works for! This is what we need: full-time policy institute employees in each state, dedicated to drafting, strategizing, and publicizing policy reform. The Goldwater Institute’s strategic investments is a model for policy institutes around the country—and for education reformers in general. 

Florida’s Hamilton Center Gearing Up

Florida’s new Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education is gearing up—they’re sending out publicity for what they have been doing lately. Education reformers should study what they’re doing—the Hamilton Center is among the first generation of new autonomous Centers at a public university, and we need to assess what they’re doing right and what needs improvement. Generally, they seem to be off to a good start! But education reformers should look for themselves, make their own judgments, and say what needs improvement. The Centers are a grand experiment; we want to get them right.

Publications from the National Association of Scholars/Civics Alliance

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) and the Civics Alliance central has a bunch of publications, just out and forthcoming.

  • Curriculum of Liberty: an outline of what college students should learn. “In the short term, Americans must learn the lessons of self-reliance, liberty, and virtue to make it possible for them to secure decent livelihoods under an indecent regime, to endure their corrupt elites, and to reclaim our nation. In the long term, Americans should equip themselves with the scientific education needed to sustain America in its competition with rivals such as China—now our technological peers, and soon our superiors, if the crippling policies of our elites continue in force. Our nation should be free, and it should be capable of greatness in the world.”
  • Model Constitution Week Lesson Plans: launch on April 18. This is the first part of model lesson plans linked to American Birthright—the first component of Grade 12 Civics lesson plans.
  • Model History of Communism Standards: launch on May 1. Modeled on Florida’s Holocaust Education Standards, which provide a module of what K-12 teachers need to know rather than an outline for a stand-alone course.

These publications forward one of our central strategic objectives: don’t just criticize, provide a model of what you want. Education reformers will be in a much stronger place if they can argue for something, and not just say what they don’t like. The NAS and the Civics Alliance provide these sorts of materials to establish a starting place for education reform arguments and policy. Not a final word! Model, not straitjacket.

Reactions to Our Publications

Chester Finn of the Fordham Institute provides an illustrative example of how this works. He just published two articles, which argue for social studies reform halfway between the Civics Alliance’s American Birthright and Educating for American Democracy. He wouldn’t have come to that position if we hadn’t published American Birthright. We are fighting for American Birthright and against Educating for American Democracy, pure and simple—but we’re also providing an anchor to keep the Chester Finns from drifting even farther toward simple acquiescence to Educating for American Democracy. Education reformers should fight fiercely for full-strength education reform—and also welcome the steps that moderates take toward their position.

Testimony

Would you like to be on a list of people prepared to give testimony in favor of a state bill to reform civics education? If so, please get in touch with me: randall@nas.org. We need people ready to testify in all 50 states—ideally, with some personal tie to the education system, but testimony from any citizen would be good.

State Social Studies Standards: What’s Coming Up

  • Alaska: Alaska’s Department of Education contracted with the American Institutes for Research to provide draft social studies standards. These draft standards are scheduled to be submitted to the State Board of Education and posted for public comment in March of 2024.
  • West Virginia: Social studies standards were reviewed through January 2024, and will be presented to the State Board of Education in April 2024.

If you have news we don’t please write in and say! But as far as we can tell, that is the state of play for the present moment.

Civics Alliance Now Has Ten State Affiliates 

The Civics Alliance is building a network of state affiliates—groups dedicated to removing action civics in their states, whom we will list on our website. Our newest state affiliate is Nebraska, run by Dennis Applegarth. Welcome, Dennis and Nebraska! We now have ten affiliates, in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas. If you would like to form such an organization, or suggest an existing organization, please get in touch with David Randall (randall@nas.org).

Monthly American Birthright Zoom Meeting 

The Civics Alliance will have its monthly Zoom session devoted to social studies standards reform on Monday, April 22, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. Please email randall@nas.org if you would like to join these monthly Zoom meetings.

Social Studies Standards Revision Schedule 

2024/Current: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky (partial), Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

2025: Kentucky, Nebraska, Texas

2026: Colorado, Maryland, North Dakota, South Carolina

2027: Hawaii, Kansas

2029: Louisiana

2030: Minnesota

2031: Illinois

No Revision Currently Scheduled: California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington.

Please email David Randall (randall@nas.org) if you are interested in further information about your state’s social studies revision process, and what you can do to participate.

Continuing Priorities: Federal Legislation 

At the federal level, the Civics Secures Democracy Act threatens to impose action civics nationwide.

The Civics Bill Tracker 

Civics Alliance supporters may now use the Civics Bill Tracker to track all proposed federal and state legislation related to civics.

Public Action 

We encourage Civics Alliance supporters to inform the public and policymakers about the stakes and consequences of action civics bills.

David Randall is Executive Director of the Civics Alliance and Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars.

Photo by Barry Zhou on Unsplash