Summertime and the livin’ is easy … Slow season, and not too much news on the civics education front. Your correspondent soon will be on vacation. Here are bits of news for July. Next Resolute probably after Labor Day. We will be hard at work for education policy reform … in a little while …
Iowa Has a New Center for Intellectual Freedom
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed into law House File 437, which creates a Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. Governor Reynolds puts a capstone on the legislative campaign this year by Representative Taylor Collins and his colleagues in Iowa’s legislature to reform Iowa’s higher education—a campaign that also includes House File 295, which reforms Iowa’s system of higher accreditation. Iowa’s citizens have been well-served this year by the very good work to reform higher education completed by their elected representatives.
We’re proud that the Civics Alliance’s model School of Intellectual Freedom Act informed House File 437. We are glad that Iowa’s elected representatives found our work useful, as they drafted legislation suited for their state. Our work now has informed state legislation establishing intellectual freedom centers in both Ohio (2024) and Iowa (2025). We hope that elected representatives in other states also will find our model legislation useful.
New Model Legislation
Accreditation Autonomy Act: We’ve expanded the scope of our Accreditation Autonomy Act, originally drafted in 2022.
School of Classical Education Act: The School of Classical Education Act establishes an independent School of Classical Education in a state university, which will teach courses on the pedagogy of classical education.
The Empire Strikes Back: More Action Civics
Task Force on the Value of Experiential Civic Learning: Experiential Civic Learning for American Democracy.
Progressive Policy Institute: Teaching Students What It Means to Be an American. (Not so bad as Experiential Civic Learning, but a “we will strike a middle ground between good and bad and think well of ourselves” approach.
New Resources
FAIR: American Experience Curriculum.
David Lantz, Run, Win, Lead.
Prohuman Foundation: Prohuman Curriculum.
News
Lauren Janov, “As ethnic studies mandate withers, it’s clear state leaders misled districts”
Idle Speculation
It would be good to have a civics lesson built around learning Robert’s Rules of Order.
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.
Civics Alliance Now Has Eleven 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. We now have eleven affiliates, in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, 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, August 11, 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
2025/Current: Arizona, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
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 the Executive Director of the Civics Alliance, and Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash
