O'Connor and Romer Involved in Worthy Effort to Strengthen Democracy...in America

Former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and one-time Colorado Governor Roy Romer are co-chairing a national effort to reverse a long-time national slide toward civic ignorance.

The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is encouraging what, from the beginning of the country's life deemed an essential element in the success of America: an informed public, educated in the functioning of America's constitutional system.

The founders understood that rule by, for, and of the people would quickly degenerate into mobocracy if the people had no understanding of government. Soon after the United States won its independence from England, legislation establishing the Northwest Territory (and detailing how states could be carved from the region) acknowledged the necessity of civic education by providing for the establishment of public schools.

Today, there is so much emphasis on Math and Science that citizenship education is given little attention. The results are predictable: low voter participation, particularly among young people; an alarming ignorance of our Constitution and history; and I would add, a susceptibility to demagoguery and sound-bite electioneering.

Already, according to Washington Post columnist David Broder, the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is meeting with some success:

Coalitions have been formed to promote the cause in at least 18 states. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card, has agreed to test students on their civic knowledge every four years instead of every eight.

Broder adds:

The challenge [the campaign seeks to address] is heightened by the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal, into this country. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, has added an amendment to the stalled immigration reform bill creating a fund and incentives for preparing those recent arrivals for the duties and privileges of citizenship. But obviously, with voting participation as low as it is -- especially among young people -- many native-born Americans also need training in civics.

I wish this campaign well. So far as I'm concerned, civic education is at least as important as education in Math and Science and the Arts.

If you go to the campaign's web site, you'll find ways for individuals and communities to get involved.