Recap of Learnings: Latest in Civic Education Policy
Perhaps it was the political events of 2020. Perhaps it was the racial events of 2020. Perhaps it was the global pandemic. Perhaps it was all of the above. Whatever the impetus, it feels like there is renewed interest and curiosity in civic education building in many sectors, including philanthropy.
Earlier this year, Educating for American Democracy (EAD) was released and the Civic Secures Democracy Act was introduced in both houses of Congress. The roadmap and legislation, respectively, signal a major opportunity to advance civic education in America. As such, the funding community is asking many questions about how they can support efforts, especially when it comes to policy. Funders are asking: What does policy momentum for civic education look like? What does it mean? How should funders get involved?
To answer these questions and more, PACE joined Philanthropy Roundtable and Grantmakers for Education to host a briefing and conversation about the latest in civic education policy. Shawn Healy, Senior Director of State Policy and Advocacy at iCivics, led the briefing, which included:
- A case for stronger K-12 civic education
- An overview of the major federal and state policy plays
- Details about the groups and coalitions working to advance civic education policy
- Specific suggestions for ways philanthropy could be catalytic
The briefing was informative and the subsequent questions from event attendees resulted in a rich discussion full of learnings. Here are the ones that are sticking with me most:
- “The thing that has been a bitter irony for me in this advocacy space for civics is that our community is not all that effective at advocacy, and it seems like it’s a pretty critical component of civics. I’ve adopted the tag-line, ‘We need to do civics for civics.’” At the top of his briefing, Shawn shared his reflections as someone who has worn many hats in the civic education space for many years — as a civics teacher, a civics funder, and a civics advocate at both the national and state levels. His tag-line is a call-to-action. How are we, individually and as a collective field, applying our own “domain of knowledge” to advance civics, especially civic education? Where could we improve?
- In the discussion following the briefing, someone asked about how race — and in particular, critical race theory — has become a hot button debate in education. In his response, Shawn acknowledged the tension that this presents for civics education, and reflected out loud: “How do we dig into difficult histories Americans have experienced without impugning the American system of government? It’s very hard to do that.”
- Relatedly, Shawn acknowledged one of the tensions in moving civic education policy forward is the concern — from both sides — that whoever is pushing the policy is trying to push an ideological agenda. But he shared that while we are sorting that out, we continue to under-invest and under-educate young people in civics. He asserts: “The bias in the system isn’t liberal or conservative. Frankly, it’s a bias towards not doing civic education.”
PACE thanks Shawn for the briefing, our partners at Philanthropy Roundtable and Grantmakers for Education for convening, and everyone who attended the event. PACE articulated civic education and learning as one of its three learning and experimentation streams this year, and we look forward to many more briefings, discussions, and learnings on the topic moving forward.
