Law Will Elevate Youth in Our Democracy Through Civics Education in Massachusetts
How a law may impact under resourced communities and close the civics education gap in Massachusetts
Imagine living in a place where everyone is civically engaged, where everyone participates civilly in political conversations, and where every citizen votes in our elections. This was something I began to dream of as I completed my first civics education course at Lowell High School.
Coming from Colombia, I had the opportunity to experience Action Civics — a project-based civics course where students are asked to make local policy change on issues we as young people care about. In my new home of Massachusetts, this experience made me realize how important it is to be involved and that I had an important voice I could use to make change. Immigrants often think that they cannot make any sort of impact, and I shared that opinion until I completed this civics project during my second year in the country. Although I was not born in the United States, this experience sparked the realization in me that I too can be an American; I too can be part of the conversations and become an empowered and active member of my community, and it all started from my civics project.
Having the chance to take real-world civic action in high school had a similar impact on my peers. Ezequiel Nuñez, eighteen-year-old graduate of Lowell High School and a freshman at Fitchburg State University, had a transformational experience doing an Action Civics education program with the nonprofit Generation Citizen when he was a junior. Ezequiel worked with his classmates to tackle the issue of teen stress and time management in school, in which his class was able to advocate for important solutions to school and community leaders.
“Before getting involved in Action Civics, I thought the way to change something was to become rich” Nuñez reflected. “I started getting involved and learning the importance of policy, and I learned that getting involved is how you change the world.” Following his robust civic education experience in high school, Nuñez expressed he has a strong desire to remain civically engaged in the future, which made him decide to major in political science.
Civic education has the possibility of being transformational for young people, and now, for the first time in Massachusetts, we have the chance to become closer to the dream of full civic participation following landmark civic education policy victories.
On November 8th, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed bill S.2631, An Act to promote and enhance civic engagement, into law, and this past July appropriated $1.5 million for the Civics Project Trust Fund to support implementation. This new law makes it a requirement that all schools Massachusetts teach civics and engage students in at least one student-led civics project at both the middle and high school levels. The projects have the goal of enhancing students’ ability to find and execute solutions to complex issues that impact their communities.
The bill passing in November was an incredible step, but there is lots more work to do. Although my high school in Lowell already offers civics, there are major inequalities in where quality civic learning is happening something called the civic education gap; the gap affects students from low income communities and students of color, which compared to students with higher socioeconomic status, do not have as high access to quality and project-based civic learning.
Arielle Jennings, Massachusetts Executive Director of Generation Citizen, an organization that supports over 60 schools in the state in implementing Action Civics to 10,000 students, commented, “Students of color and those from low-income communities are the least likely to experience high quality civic learning including real-world, project-based civics in their schools. The implementation of the new civics law will require that resources be intentionally directed to these communities to ensure we close this civic education gap.”
We can already see the impact that civics projects are having on civic outcomes in under-resourced communities. “As an individual, this project made me aware of my surroundings and rights. It built me up to become a better citizen and showed me that no matter how low in life you are, you still have that little bit of power,” explained Lesly Theodore, a seventeen-year-old senior from Malden High School who completed an Action Civics program.
We young people are impatient to see the well applied implementation of civics education which hopefully will help close the gap for our under-resourced communities. Now more than ever is the time to make a change in our communities, but it all begins by giving the right education to our children who are the future of democracy.
