Background of the Florida College System Civics Literacy Initiative
The decline of civics education and public engagement in the nation’s democratic system has become a national crisis that literally imperils the future of that system. In a succinct analysis of the problem, David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, put it bluntly: “(Events) are moving us toward what cannot be: A citizen-less democracy.” Mathews is not alone in that view. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “The need to revitalize and reimagine civic education is urgent.” As noted in the 2011 study titled “Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools”, “In a representative democracy, government is only as good as the citizens who elect its leaders, demand action on pressing issues, hold public officials accountable, and take action to help solve problems in their communities…To neglect civic learning is to neglect a core pillar of American democracy.”
It hardly needs to be said that civics knowledge and democratic engagement are at pathetically low levels. A few statistics indicate how low. The 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress Civics Report found that less than 30 percent of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-grade students were proficient in civics – and among racial and ethnic groups there is a significant achievement gap. At the college level, two-thirds of graduating seniors surveyed said their college education resulted in decreased civic capacities. And this depressing statistic: Of 172 world democracies ranked for voter participation in 2007, the United States came in 139th. In the U.S., the “cradle of democracy,” 139th out of 172 for voter participation! This is what author Robert Putnam meant when he identified the country’s “decline in social capital” in his groundbreaking 2000 book, “Bowling Alone.”
Not that this is a new concern – or a new corrective effort. The Guardian of Democracy study is a follow-up to the 2003 Civic Mission of the Schools report, which reached similar conclusions about the decline of civic learning and democratic engagement. The 1998 National Commission on Civic Renewal asserted, “In a time that cries out for civic action, we are in danger of becoming a nation of spectators.” And as far back as 1947, the Truman Commission Higher Education for American Democracy project made this key recommendation about civic education: “The first and most essential charge upon higher education is that at all levels and in all fields of specialization, it shall be the carrier of democratic values, ideals and processes.”
This project, two years in the planning, emerges at a time when the civics education gap has raised alarms nationwide. Secretary Duncan on January 10, 2012, announced a national conversation about civics education with release of the DOE’s report, “Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Road Map and Call to Action.” The report’s release coincides with publication of a final report from the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement entitled, “A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future,” which was commissioned by the DOE.
In April 2013, a Collaborative Lab was held at St. Petersburg College for key stakeholders to identify strategies for implementing a Civics Education Initiative and in October 2013, a workshop featuring FCS faculty and administrators was held to further develop those strategies.
The Institute thus far has identified two strategies to begin implementing the Initiative’s goals:
- To establish a process for tracking best practices in Civics Education in FCS – to highlight what each college is doing in the field and to share that information with the others. This will include the successes, the not-quite successes, and the lessons learned the hard way that can help others avoid pitfalls. This process is accessible to all participants in the FCS system.
- To initiate TurboVote at all member colleges of FCS. TurboVote is a non-partisan, non-profit digital platform that makes voter registration – and voting – easy for students, especially incoming freshmen with no previous voting experience and little if any knowledge of or interest in civic affairs as they enter college for the first time. Because higher education is required by amendments to the Higher Education Act to make a good-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to each enrolled student, an online service like TurboVote makes it relatively simple for the 28 colleges in FCS to fulfill that mandate.
The Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College serves as the clearing house for the project’s on-going operation. The Institute accepted this responsibility in its role as a center serving the Florida College System.