In January 2012 the Obama administration released
a document, a call to action, titled “Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement
in Democracy.” Has anything changed?
Sadly, the answer is no.
Since the 1980s American democracy—and with it
public education—has been hijacked by corporate oligarchs whose
bought-and-paid-for “conservative” lawmakers have overrun Congress and many
state legislatures. The result has been a deluge of anti-democratic laws and
utter stagnation on key concerns upon which the future of the United States
turns, such as education and infrastructure, which are suffering at every
level.
While gerrymandering and roadblocks to voting have
been fostered by rightwing forces, the real stumbling block to progress has
been voter apathy. Congress consistently acts contrary to the will of the
people because, although many people are willing to answer opinion polls, far
fewer are motivated to exercise their right to vote. Voter apathy is an
international embarrassment. Some 60% of eligible U.S. voters don’t regularly
vote, and among low-income voters the non-voting numbers rise to around 80%. The International Institute for Democracy
and Electoral Assistance ranks the
United States 120th in the world for average national turnout.
Voting is
fundamental to the maintenance of a democracy. It’s no wonder that American
democracy is giving way—some would argue, has already given way—to corporate
oligarchy, in which wealth governs regardless of the will of the people.
Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people” has become
“government of the poor, by the corrupted, for the rich.” The demise of
American democracy cannot be slowed or reversed until the right to vote is seen
as an obligation to vote.
Education
for democracy at all levels, from kindergarten to the public forum, must be
given a central place in our national conversation. And the conversation must
lead to action. In the schools, it must become every educator’s role to foster
awareness of democratic values, to infuse civic education throughout the
curriculum, and to give young people opportunities to exercise democratic
values.
Among the
steps identified in the “Advancing Civic Learning” report are a couple that
merit highlighting:
·
Convene and catalyze schools and postsecondary institutions to increase
and enhance high-quality civic learning and engagement.
·
Support civic learning for a well-rounded K-12 curriculum.
We need to ask, not only of our federal government
but also our state and local governments, what has been done to accomplish the
first of these? And we need to ask our public schools, despite the perversity
of the present test mania, where is civic learning for a “well-rounded K-12
curriculum”?
The full “Advancing Civic Learning” report and
more can be found at https://www.ed.gov/civic-learning.
It is a call to action that must be taken seriously.
