We have all seen the ubiquitous “man on the street” interviews where young people struggle to identify the branches of government or their elected representatives. And the headlines announcing American students’ poor performance on national civics assessments are hard to miss.

Ultimately, this leads to a dreaded question many of us in the civic education space are asked too many times: Do schools even teach civics anymore?

For many American kids, particularly younger students, the simple answer is “no.” They are not being taught civics — or, in some cases, not enough civics to matter.

But let’s stop blaming the kids or their teachers. Instead, we all need to look in the mirror and reflect on what we expect from our schools and what it will take to drive meaningful change.

The lack of civic education among elementary students is particularly dire.

A 2018 study funded by the National Science Foundation found elementary classrooms only spend an average of 16-21 minutes a day on social studies. We can be reasonably certain that little — if any — of that time is devoted to civics.

Years ago, the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies warned some elementary classrooms were spending as little as 20 minutes a week on social studies, which the group’s president called a “serious civic crisis.”

And just last year, there was great dismay when the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, found only 22% of eighth-graders scored proficient or above in civics.

But buried within that report were some more distressing truths. Less than half of eighth-graders were taking a class mainly focused on civics or government, and only 29% had a teacher whose primary responsibility was teaching civics.

These eighth graders were all tested on civics, but whether some of them actually studied the topic in school is another matter.

At the Bill of Rights Institute, we work with more than 76,000 civics and history teachers nationwide. These are talented, capable teachers, working to help young people learn about our government, America’s founding principles, and their rights and responsibilities as citizens.

But many of these teachers are not getting enough support, and civics is often deprioritized and treated as an afterthought in the overall school curricula.

It is easy to cast blame for why civics is not being taught more in schools. Some point to a heavy emphasis on subjects like math or science, or even time-consuming federal and state mandates.

The more useful exercise is determining where we go from here.

Civic education provides students the unique opportunity to understand how our nation and communities function and their roles in civil society. They learn to think critically, engage civilly and internalize founding principles like liberty, justice and equality.

All students deserve this knowledge, not just some students.

Reprioritizing civics will require a groundswell of local support. Real change can only happen locally, where most decisions about curricula and resources are made.

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We can all help create this groundswell.

As a first step, talk to local teachers about the specific challenges they face, in terms of resources, priorities or time, in incorporating more civics in the classroom. You will find many teachers share your frustrations.

Second, let school board officials and candidates know you want more time and resources invested in civic education. A 2021 study from researchers at Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern and Rutgers found only 4% of individuals attended a school board meeting in the past six months.

We need more community members off the sidelines and in the game.

Our schools reflect our priorities, but we must communicate those priorities. If we want young people to become informed, civically engaged citizens, it is time to speak up and give civics the attention it deserves.

Bobb is president and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advances civic and history education. He wrote this column for The Fulcrum.

As the director of the All Ages and Faces Academy on St. Paul’s Fuller Avenue, Debra Messenger struggles to find enough workers to staff the center, which has capacity for 90 kids but currently serves about 40. When St. Paul Public Schools began enrolling 4-year-olds in pre-kindergarten two years ago, she lost key revenue.

Messenger has been a vocal proponent of state-driven child care solutions through Kids Count On Us, a St. Paul-based advocacy effort she helped launch in 2016. Still, she’s a firm “No” vote on a question on St. Paul’s November ballot that would use city property taxes to create municipal child care subsidies.

“There is no real workforce for child care as it is,” she said. “It would spread out the workforce we do have even further. I believe it would hurt existing child care centers in St. Paul. It’s kind of an extra step that’s not needed. We’re doing the same work, but how you get from Point A to B, it’s two different routes.”

Strong feelings on all sides

For months, members of ISAIAH — one of the state’s most active faith-based social justice organizations — have quietly grappled with the ballot question, which asks city residents whether to increase property taxes annually, each year for 10 years, in order to fund municipal child care subsidies for low- and moderate-income families.

Within the organization, the prospect of raising housing costs to help meet deep and growing child care needs that have become even more complex since the pandemic has drawn strong feelings on all sides, but no definitive statement of support or opposition.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Kids Count On Us — ISAIAH’s child care advocacy and lobbying affiliate — said that after extensive discussion, the coalition of child care leaders decided this week they would neither collectively support nor oppose the ballot question.

“Kids Count On Us has chosen not to take a position,” said Kelly Martinson, a communications director for the advocacy group.

That silence is notable, given that Kids Count On Us is made up largely of community-based child care providers, as well as some teachers and parents. The ISAIAH affiliate was represented on an early learning advisory committee assembled by the city council to study the issue in 2022, and it continues to advocate for statewide child care solutions through a working group of early learning advocacy organizations.

Other nonprofits on the working group, such as Think Small and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, remain members of the SPARK Education coalition that fought to get the child care initiative on the ballot. Most nonprofits, however, avoid direct advocacy on ballot questions as their lobbying is limited under IRS rules.

Progressives split

The ballot question has split St. Paul’s progressive bulwarks and others focused on child care outcomes.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and city council President Mitra Jalali have come out strongly opposed to the ballot question, citing concerns it will lock the city into creating a new department on par in budget size with the city library system at a time when property taxes are rising fast and downtown building values dropping.

In early September, the St. Paul Federation of Educators — the St. Paul school district’s teachers union — issued a strongly-worded statement urging a “No” vote, as well.

The ballot question originated with the “Yes for St. Paul Families” coalition — previously known as the St. Paul All Ready for Kindergarten campaign, or SPARK — which is chaired by Halla Henderson, a St. Paul school board member. It’s also drawn backing from state Rep. Dave Pinto and St. Paul City Council members Rebecca Noecker, HwaJeong Kim and Nelsie Yang. The coalition’s treasurer is Justin Lewandowski, an organizer with the Hamline-Midway Coalition, a neighborhood nonprofit.

“Child care in Minnesota is prohibitively expensive and thousands of kids in St. Paul are missing out. On average, the cost of care for one child is $13,000 per year,” reads a recent guest editorial written by the three council members, which highlights the benefits of early learning programs. “Despite increased investments by the state in recent years, hundreds of St. Paul children remain on waitlists for child care, and most families pay more for child care than they do for housing.”

Campaign donations

A review of campaign finance documents recently filed by the coalition also indicates donations from a seemingly unlikely source — a series of real estate developers and others associated with the real estate community.

Recent “Yes for St. Paul Families” donors have included Chris Sherman of Sherman Associates, Richard Pakonen of Pak Properties, Johnny Opara of the JO Companies, Steve Wellington of Wellington Management, former Dixie’s on Grand owner Peter Kenefick and Brian Alton, an attorney who frequently represents businesses in land-use issues before City Hall.

“I think most economists feel that child care financial assistance for lower- and middle-income families is a very effective policy for a community’s economic improvement,” said Wellington, in an email Monday.

“To grow and develop St. Paul, we need to attract and support growing and successful families,” Wellington said. “Child care assistance is an excellent long-term investment not only for the recipients but for those committed to helping our entire community to do better. St. Paul has to be careful with increasing its tax burden when many suburban cities have lower taxes. But strategic investments in child care and certain infrastructure projects are essential for building a growing city.”

Voters, immigrant leaders also split

Voters casting absentee ballots this week at the Ramsey County government building on Plato Boulevard in St. Paul lined up on all sides of the issue.

“It is a big one,” said Denise Deppe, an engineer who opted to vote yes, as did her partner on Monday. “It’s a tough one for the population as a whole because we do have a high tax burden. But an investment in a child early is worth it. I know there’s some uncertainty about how the money would be used.”

A husband-and-wife couple coming out of the polls a moment later offered the opposite tack.

“Who is going to administer it? We’re retired. Our property taxes are high,” said the wife, calling a new layer of city-driven services “redundant” to state and county efforts around early learning.

The ballot question also has split many of the city’s immigrant leaders, some of whom have quietly acknowledged they’ve shifted mindset over time. When Yan Chen moved to America from China, she assumed all child care was subsidized by the federal government.

“Child care is an important topic for our society to engage with, but not with our city tax dollars,” said Chen, a biophysicist who ran for city council in Ward 1 in 2023. “The proposed program wouldn’t even put a tiny dent in the child care problem, but it would give our city yet another slight financial disadvantage, among many others, as it relates to the overall affordability of living here.”

Omar Syed, another former Ward 1 city council candidate, said immigrants in the Somali community — many of whom run or rely upon home day cares — would be impacted both negatively and positively if the ballot question is approved. He said his community is feeling the negative effects of high housing costs, which could be passed on to tenants through higher rents. On the other hand, with both parents working, some young families are at a loss for how to hold down multiple jobs without access to affordable child care.

“Raising taxes, it’s tough to do it,” said Syed, who runs a St. Paul coffee shop. “But also we need the child care. I’m voting yes.”

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Letters: This is why we have the Bill of Rights, with free speech at the top of the list