• The new civics education bill moves Utah civics education from a brief look at civics and a test to a more prolonged experience with ideas that help students acquire civics understanding.
• Sutherland Institute supports HB 381 – Civics Education Amendments.

A nearly constant barrage of political and constitutional questions in the news has made everyone aware of how much civics education matters.

Furthermore, we know from annual surveys that an alarming number of Americans don’t know even basic facts about American government.

In 2021, in the wake of the political unrest and pandemic fallout of 2020, Sutherland Institute launched a Civics Initiative to draw attention to the need to improve civics education in the nation and in Utah.

Basically, Americans are faced with issues that make them wonder how our government works and how it should respond to current events, but too few are equipped to engage meaningfully in the civic processes that surround us.

We need better civics education.

Utah’s current legislative response

This Utah legislative session, two bills dealing with civics education have been introduced. One bill – which has progressed significantly through the process already – would strengthen civics education in high school in important ways.

HB 381 – Civics Education Amendments makes several meaningful changes. It increases the civics education requirement to graduate from high school from 0.5 credit (a semester course) to a 1.0 credit course on American constitutional government and citizenship. This has the effect of increasing the total social studies requirement from 3.0 credits to 3.5 credits in order to graduate, adding more instruction time overall on social studies, which has waned over decades as other topics like STEM took priority.

Part of this can be earned through courses or activities “emphasizing verbal communication,” provided a significant chunk of it is “dedicated to civics education, including: policy analysis, governmental systems or civics engagement,” or participation in Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Such options also strengthen a student’s overall civics education.

The state board of education must create the standards for the new American constitutional government and citizenship course. To give students a foundation in the basics, the bill says the course must prioritize the primary documents central to America’s founding and history like the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Iroquois Constitution, The United States Constitution, George Washington’s Farewell Address, the Utah Constitution and others. While civics education includes current events and is an ongoing, vibrant issue, all current events in the U.S. are tethered to the primary documents that make up our understanding of American government and our country. Prioritizing primary documents is a prudent policy choice.

The bill also removes the civics testing requirement, a policy that has been debated at length over its effectiveness and criticized as being a rushed final hurdle before the end of high school.

All together, these changes seem to be moving Utah civics education from a cursory look at civics and checking a requirement off a list (a semester class and a test) to encouraging prolonged thoughtful involvement with experiences and ideas that help students acquire civic understanding.

Sutherland supports this bill

Sutherland Institute supports increasing civics education and specifically supports the efforts made in HB 381.

Over the past several years, we published a brief history report on civics education in America that shows how civics education was a primary concern in our nation’s founding and how it began to weaken over time; released survey data on parents’ and teachers’ perspectives on the current state of civics education, including the finding that a majority of respondents support a full year of civics; wrote a series on the importance of primary documents in civics education; and participated in a legislative Civics Education working group to research reforms.

Conclusion

After our extensive work in this area of reform, we understand the need for improved civics education. We are persuaded that now is the time to beef up requirements in Utah, and we support what HB 381 would accomplish to meet these ends.