2/20/2024

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal starts off with an article at National Review Online from Paul Carrese, a senior fellow at the Jack Miller Center. Carrese argues that with the recent scandals and controversies in Ivy League schools, along with cratering public trust in American higher education more generally, a reckoning sorely needs to take place. Restoring trust “starts with recovering higher education’s core missions,” writes Carrese. This project centers on recovering the building blocks of a healthy civics education. Carrese argues that those leading the Ivies and other universities “should consider establishing departments of civic thought and leadership” based on the successful model of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership that Carrese himself helped establish at Arizona State University. He concludes by arguing that “institutional space” must be made “for students, faculty, alums, trustees, donors, and community members to participate in the restoration of the excellent education and research – and cultivation of intellectual and civic virtues – that both higher education and American civic culture so deeply need.”

At the Washington Times, Sean Salai reports that a new survey conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found “more than 7 in 10 voters would fail a basic quiz” on American civics. This unfortunately tracks with what many civics surveys have been finding as of late: basic knowledge of civics among Americans needs to improve. The survey found that 54% of adult voters surveyed did not know the correct number of members of the House of Representatives; 48% did not know there are nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Hillary Crow, the head of a nonprofit civics education initiative at the foundation, noted, “While Americans across backgrounds value civic participation in theory, we are sorely lacking in the basic knowledge that translates values into informed, engaged citizenship.”