While this renewed momentum offers opportunity, educators attempting to revive civic education face challenges presented by the abundance of resources and ideological fragmentation within the civics landscape: challenges that are exacerbated by a lack of funding, commensurate professional development, and explicit attention to bridging and building common ground. This is aptly conveyed in the 2021 Educating for American Democracy report, which states that “recent waves of federal education reform from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 to the Race to the Top grants of 2009—have largely neglected [civics and history].” Ted McConnell, the executive director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, highlights the 2019 US government expenditures at approximately $54 per student to further STEM learning and a “paltry” 5 cents per student for civic education—a number low enough for the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation to call for a hundredfold increase in federal funding for civic education in its “Commonsense Solutions to Our Civics Crisis” (2020) policy brief.
Author: November 25, 2025
Published at: 2025-11-25 00:00:00
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