FairVote Feed: Learning Democracy

Americans' View of Government Shaped by Student Government Experience

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:06:34 -0700

Sidwell Friends School

When we think about the skeptical views many Americans have about our government and our elected leaders in Washington, we can't help but wonder whether these problems start developing at a younger age - specifically with student government and the power (or lack of it) in most schools.

The fact is that the civics lessons students learn in schools have an impact on how they view government when they are older. Students' civics experiences or lack of experiences starting from elementary school all the way through college can shape the way they view our politics today. I'll use my own experience as an example.

As a member of student government in my junior and senior year in high school, I faced the same problems that many students across this country face. I can't tell you how many times I've heard students say, "Student government doesn't do anything" or "Oh, student government? They are a joke." I cringe every time I hear statements like these because I know that 10 or 20 years down the line, these individuals will be thinking the same thing about our government.

The problem doesn't seem to be the process of electing student leaders - although elections on campus do provide a chance for innovation -- but rather it seems that these student government groups do not get the respect they deserve within their establishments. Some schools even use alternative voting systems, like approval voting or rank choice voting, that are more representative, but full representation won't make a difference if the students don't think student government has legitimacy or influence in the community.

Students are very smart and perceptive. When they observe that student government lacks authority or power, they are less likely to listen or express their thoughts, as it would just be a waste of time. Our student government meetings in school were open to the public, but over the two years I served as a member, there were at most four meetings where a student came to discuss something.

This lack of participation was very disappointing because, after all, the entire point of having a student government is to represent the voice of the students. I believe this goes all the way back to the perception of student government as a meaningless body.

The characterization of student government as a figurehead happens across the country and even in this nation's most prestigious schools. My experiences have taught me that the relationship between the administration and the student government must be well established before student government can be an effective body. There was a serious belief in student government that the administration did not involve us in the community as much as they could.

The administration rarely came to student government to address problems facing the student body. When the administration came to us, it was usually because they wanted us to implement a policy that they felt students wouldn't think favorably upon, but it was already too late for us to state our opinions. This was likely because they felt that the students would be more responsive to student government than the administration, but that is a huge misconception. In fact, I think the students were much less encouraged to listen to student government than the administration because of how rarely we were given any real power to make decisions affecting students' lives on campus.

Even when the administration gave us some minor power in the community, it was largely watered down. They gave us the authority to allocate funds to different clubs after these clubs made a proposal, but actually, student government was supposed to make a proposal to that administration about the proposal that the club made. Not only does this policy water down the role of student government to a middleman, it's also simply ineffective. Then why wouldn't the clubs just make a direct proposal to the administration?

I believe that this relationship between the two bodies must be worked on and developed by both the administration and student government itself. The truth is that the student government is also to blame in many situations. I felt that we tended not to be resilient enough when our ideas were shot down. We didn't revise our proposals and re-approach the administration, and we just gave up on ideas as if they were lost causes. As opposed to giving up, if we had worked on negotiating and communicating with the administration, we could have built a better foundation or relationship between student government and the administration.

Building this relationship is a challenge, but once that relationship is built, both students and student government itself will be far more encouraged to work toward goals that will actually impact the community. Students will realize the power of student government and will not only be more encouraged to run for office but also more encouraged to participate in meetings and have their voices heard in other ways.

Ultimately, student government will serve its purpose of being advocates of change sought by the student body. But most importantly, as students become adults, these habits of engagement would translate into participation within their communities.

The Failure of US Civics Education

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:03:35 -0700

"An education that teaches you to understand something about the world has done only half of the assignment. The other half is to teach you to do something about making the world a better place."

--Johnetta Cole

Today, the United States falls short of its goal to create generation after generation of educated citizens to ensure the continuation of our democracy. Once the founding motivation for the creation of public schools, civics education has fallen into the shadows of math and science. It is taught in a passive learning environment, and lacks any development of critical thinking essential to the democratic process. Without a thorough revamping of our education system, civics education will continue to be sidelined and our democracy will suffer.

Civics Education is on the Backburner

With the current focus on test scores, civics education has receded into the background of public education. According to a 2010 study by the American Enterprise Institute, seven out of ten teachers say social studies are a lower priority because of pressure to show progress on statewide math and language arts tests. Even in states where civics education is tested, it pales in comparison to the testing of other subjects. For example, in the state of California, students are instructed in social science and history during four grade levels, and tested on them twice. In eighth grade, out of seventy-five questions only one-third of materials relate to the Constitution, the other two-thirds ask about unrelated sixth and seventh grade state curriculum standards. In eleventh grade, ten out of sixty questions relate to American political and social thought. Further, the failure to reach proficiency on the eighth or eleventh grade assessments carries no real ramification for the students. If social studies standards are meant to prepare students for democratic citizenship, they fall short.

Passive Learning is Unacceptable

In addition to being sidelined by state testing, civics education has fallen into a state of passive learning. When civics education is measured, taught, and tested, it is based upon factual knowledge on a true/false or fill-in-the-bubble test format. This method of measurement is likely contributing to the passive environment of the classroom. The graph to the right shows the results of the2010 Civic Assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It reveals that the most common civics classroom activities are passive-discussions, readings, or tests-while the least common activities are active-role playing, writing letters, or taking field trips. The activities practiced in civics classrooms do not adequately prepare students for their role as engaged citizens. Reading and discussing the role of Congress is not as effective as taking a field trip to the state capitol, or creating a mock congress within the classroom. Learning about low youth turnout also does not reverse the problem. However, participating in mock elections not only teaches the process of voting in a more tangible manner, but also cultivates a culture of voting.

Lack of Critical Thinking

In addition to stifling the culture of democracy amongst the youth, the passive learning environment encourages students to submissively accept the current system instead of striving to improve it. If students are only expected to read out of a book, discuss it, and bubble in the correct answer, where will our future leaders develop critical thinking skills? If our students are encouraged to memorize facts about the past instead of learning to think for themselves, how will they deal with challenges of the future? The fate of democracy lies in the future leaders of our nation, but we are failing to give students a valuable knowledge of civics, and are doing even less to prepare them for their role as active citizens. As Robert Hutchins warned, "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and underourishment." To save our democracy from the threat of civic apathy, we must instruct students to be engaged citizens, through an active classroom that is respected as a core subject of public schools.

Democracy Demands Civic Education

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:41:18 -0700

Through at least 40 years of polling, the American public has claimed that the number-one purpose of the nation’s schools is “preparing people to become responsible citizens.” The best way to prepare ‘responsible citizens’ is to instill basic democratic values and ideals into the nation’s youth, which is most effectively achieved though civic education, that includes instruction about the specifics of our democratic processes and a general introduction to open-minded engagement with the challenges facing our nation. The American school system needs to increase its role in civic education, and help foster democratic values in its young people.

While school is stereotypically seen as a place to learn grammar and mathematics, it is also a place where moral education is taught to the youth who will one day control the fate of our democracy. Perhaps best stated over one-hundred and seventy years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his observations of American

Democracy, “I see the time drawing near when freedom, public peace, and social order itself will not be able to do without education.” Such a time is upon us, and we must dedicate a significant amount of educational time to instruct students in the area of citizenship.

Today, when people are polled about what they want out of their children’s schools, people continuously respond that the personal and social development of the children is just as important as vocational and academic development. As one such person believes, “what [students] deserve and must receive through schooling is an education conducive to the development of a sense of political efficacy, and, coupled with this, a program of concerted community enculturation in the ethic shouldering a responsible measure of civic virtue.” Civic education is a key factor in personal and social development, as well as essential to the democratic process.

Although our young people can become responsible adults through instruction outside of the classroom, it is still necessary to provide civic education within a school setting to reach the youth who do not have access to quality alternatives. As pointed out by Wolfgang Edelstein, a German social and educational scientist, “the only institution that can provide opportunities to cultivate democratic experience-not for elite groups, but for all children and youth- is the school.”

Because all citizens become eligible voters by age eighteen, it is important they understand their role and responsibility as democratic citizens — knowledge they only have the resources to learn through education. Our emphasis at FairVote is ensuring that knowledge includes the mechanics of how to participate, but ensuring everyone is registered to vote, knows how to change their registration when they move, what offices are elected in their community, and other key aspects of our democracy. We also want them to see the rules of our democracy as an evolving process — one with a history of invention and reinvention that demands a critical eye about how our democracy is living up to core American ideas.

That’s why one of my major tasks during my FairVote internship is to develop and refine curriculum tools on voting and electoral reform, as well as to study and share best practices from other nations. Without a thorough understanding of the civic education learned at school, how could you expect anyone to perform their civic duties- you wouldn’t want a population full of untrained doctors, would you?

The Next Generation of Reformers: Reasons for Young People to Get Involved in the Electoral Reform Movement

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:01:17 -0700

According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, an estimated 24% of all eligible young people ages 18-29 voted in the 2010 midterms – in contrast to 51% of eligible voters over 30. Historically, we’re a group that gets ignored a lot by political campaigns and pollsters. The chicken or egg question of youth voter turnout is usually: Do young people not vote because campaigns ignore us, or do campaigns ignore us because we don’t vote?

The 2008 election seemed to prove that young people do vote if we see a reason to participate and are reached out to. The same is true for young people in nonpartisan movements like the environmental movement and organizations like Invisible Children that deal with international conflicts. Young people, especially of the millennial generation, will get excited and involved in elections and organizations if we are specifically targeted.

A lot of the people advocating for structural changes do so because we have problems with the established political culture. The group of people that is 18-29 right now has a lot of reasons to want deep systemic change soon. Because of this, I think that over the next decade we will see groups that are focused on young people intensify their advocacy efforts for election reform issues. Here’s why:

Millennials are more likely not to identify strongly with either party, which means we will want to take advantage of reforms like Ranked Choice Voting. Ranked Choice Voting means that voters don’t have to worry about a “spoiler effect” if they vote for a candidate who’s not polling in the top two spots. It also makes for less divisive campaigning.

We’re very transient, so we benefit from policies like Same Day Registration and Universal Voter Registration. If you move to a state that has different election laws or have to move suddenly, you might miss the deadline to register. These policies mean that no one will be disenfranchised because of a location change.

We’re the most diverse generation ever in America, so we want policies that will treat everyone equally, and are more willing to see the reality of inequality in our country. That could lead to interest in proportional voting systems that elect representatives who better reflect voters.

A lot of us are going to be in debt for the majority of our lives, so any policies that simulate a poll tax like photo ID laws is something that won’t fly with us -- especially when such policies make it more difficult for students to vote.

We’re used to having to figure out new technologies quickly and are used to adapting to the newest model, so registering to vote online and having better voting machines is not something we would shy away from. But we also know the limits of technology, so we will be supportive of checks on election systems, like paper ballots and election audits.

Being smart is cool- not only can we be a more informed electorate, we can be more informed about the system’s current deficiencies. Efforts to improve civic education can heighten awareness.

For instance, these organizations that focus on young people have recently advocated for voting rights and other structural changes:

In 2010, The Bus Project in Portland, OR campaigned against the repeal of the local municipal public-option campaign financing law. The Bus Project’s main objective is to get young people more involved in politics.

League of Young Voters in Portland, ME is crusading against the repeal of Election Day Registration in Maine as we speak. Young people are one of the biggest demographics that Election Day Registration helps, although certainly not the only. Last year the League of Young Voters was involved in advocating for an elected Mayor in Portland and Ranked Choice Voting, both of which are being implemented for the first time this fall, and pushed hard for a nearly successful effort to allow residents who are legal immigrants to vote in city elections.

Young people are also defending their rights at a time when many citizens’ rights are under attack. In New Hampshire, there was a recent attempt to disenfranchise students in the form of an unconstitutional bill in the legislature that sought to bar students originally from out of state from voting in New Hampshire. Students from different colleges in New Hampshire went to the mattresses, and defended the rights of students to vote through protest, testifying in the State Legislature, and reaching out to media.

Students at Yale advocated for National Popular Vote in Connecticut and testified before the Election Laws Committee. Students all over the country are advocating for NPV and making an impact.

Voter pre-registration is a policy that is most effectively advocated for by the people it affects- young people ages 16 and 17, or people that were recently high school age. The Rhode Island Young Democrats successfully advocated for voter pre-registration in their state, which has been in effect since early 2010.

Groups like this mean that the next generation of election reformers is already active. But if we want to capitalize on all the reasons why this particular group should be calling for reforms like Ranked Choice Voting, Right to Vote, Pre-registration, and more, we need to make sure our message is reaching them.

Democracy, Schools, and the Internet...Oh, My!

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:54:46 -0700

The Internet has made many everyday tasks easier, from looking up a business to finding a recipe for foreign cuisine, and participation in politics is no exception. In Australia, where they are having a federal election on August 21st, one teacher took advantage of the political climate and interest in technology to get his students involved. They set up a blog where they could interview politicians, as well as a twitter account to keep the public updated on their activities. These Year 8 students (equivalent to United States eighth graders) now seem to have become political analysts in their own way and have brought civic education to a whole new level.

We hope American teachers are given opportunities to pursue similar creative ideas. The motivation behind FairVote’s initiatives is to create a democracy founded on treating every vote with respect, which our democracy currently does not. Civic education is a large part of that effort. Without an educated populous, the efficacy of democracy deteriorates. We need to target voters using creative initiatives that explore the full potential of all the resources available to us in this information age. Social networking sites like twitter, blogs, and Facebook, can be of great use in reaching out to young voters or even would-be voters, not by creating corny videos that patronize, but by making information available to them through sites they check every day.

The Australian class is a perfect example not just of how to use technology, but also for how to use the classroom as a direct route to young people. Schools, after all, are the most efficient and broad-based way to provide civic education to young voters-to-be. FairVote’s “Learning Democracy” curriculum manages to engage students through powerpoint presentations that facilitate discussions about policy issues and voting rights in addition to an interactive history of suffrage. It was developed by FairVote in conjunction with curriculum experts, and can be adapted to different classroom settings.

As our own 2010 mid-term elections and 2012 presidential election approach, it’s time to think about recruiting the newest generation of voters. Many campaigns already use Facebook and Twitter to attract supporters, and with a little bit of a change in target audience, many more students and young people could be reached through these media outlets. As the civics teacher in Australia realized, a federal election is too great of a “teachable moment” to pass up. Let his work be inspiring, not limiting—figure out an innovative way to get teens, whether they are your peers, students, or children. Get involved!

Sen. Byrd and Constitution Day

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:34:37 -0700

Senator Robert Byrd (D-W. Va) died at 92 this morning after being admitted to a Fairfax, VA hospital last week for heat exhaustion. Byrd, who was elected to serve a record-breaking nine consecutive terms in the Senate following three terms in the House, is remembered in the many obituaries that appeared today for his unwavering dedication to the needs of the people he represented. His colleagues also characterized him by remembering his impassioned speeches and his love of the Constitution. Reported to have carried a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution around for reference, Byrd devoted himself to the words of this country's founders-and wanted every American to do the same through Constitution Day.

Byrd successfully pushed for legislation in 2004 that deemed September 17^th "Constitution Day." According to the law, all federally-funded schools are mandated to teach their students about the U.S. Constitution in some form on that day, from elementary schools to the college level. Initially, the legislation received mixed reviews; while teachers did not appreciate another federal mandate, many legislators wanted students to know more about their country's founding document than they do about television shows.

Six years later, though lesson plans and activities for all ages abound on the Internet, teachers still struggle to find time to fit Constitution Day-based lessons into their curriculum. Furthermore, many teachers feel that the requirement is redundant, as they already teach about the Constitution at other points during the year. In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, students are required to take a course on national, state, and local government, which includes Constitution lessons in the curriculum, and teachers have told me that singling out one day to focus on it seems superfluous. On the other hand, some colleges, like the Milwaukee School of Engineering, hold special events for a week surrounding Constitution Day. There are plenty of resources available to you if want to celebrate the Constitution in your own schools (see list at the end of this post).

Most educators would agree that the Constitution is something every resident of the U.S. should know and understand, so please take the time to teach it, even if it is in a simple way. FairVote has a particular suggestion relating to our belief that we should prepare our young people to be active participants in our democracy. Knowledge of the law and civic participation (such as how and why to vote) need to be ingrained in the brains of new voters, especially when only 59 percent of eligible voters 18-24 are registered, compared to 71 percent registered of eligible voters overall, according to the FairVote fact sheet. Knowledgeable young voters become voters for life. One talent teenagers are known for is their ability to talk; if one friend knows how to vote, they can tell others, and so on. After Sen. Jamie Raskin's successful legislation in 2007, Maryland law authorizes school systems to specify curricula for their students, but we hope to see more schools and teachers take it one step further. Recognizing Constitution Day is a vital step in this process of getting young people involved and interested in the laws and people that govern them. Democracy cannot function with an indifferent populace.

Links to resources:

FairVote's Learning Democracy curriculum: http://www.fairvote.org/lesson-plans

American Bar Association activities: http://www.abanet.org/publiced/conversations/constitution/lessons.shtml

The Constitution Center's page with resources and events: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/ncc_progs_Constitution_Day.aspx

Center for Civic Education activities for grades K-12: http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=constitution_day

The American Political Science Association resources:
http://www.apsanet.org/content_20191.cfm

See a list of what colleges and universities are doing:

http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2007/rconstitution083107.html

FairVote testifies to Maryland Senate Committee

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:11:52 -0800

Yesterday, the Maryland Senate Education, Health & Environmental Committee held a public hearing on several election bills. FairVote’s Right to Vote Director Adam Fogel testified in favor of two of the bills that are sponsored by Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-20):
- SB 292, which will set a uniform voter registration age of 16
- SB 293, which will establish a permanent absentee ballot list.

Youth preregistration bills have been introduced and debated in the Maryland Legislature for the last three years now, as part of policies designed to encourage voter registration and participation. As Adam Fogel stated in his testimony, “Maryland’s 18 to 24-year-old voter registration rate is below the national average and is in danger of falling further if policies are not enacted now to increase voter registration opportunities for our youth.”

SB 292 was unopposed during the hearing, and notably supported by the County Council at-large candidate Hans Riemer, Ryan O’Donnell from Common Cause Maryland, Fielding Huseth from Maryland PIRG, and by the Maryland League of Women Voters. FairVote is optimistic that the bill will be favorably reported by the Committee and signed by the Governor at the end of the legislative session. If Maryland enacts the bill this year, they’ll join the list of states with 16-year-old registration: Hawaii, Florida, North Carolina, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

You can read Adam’s testimony for SB 292 here.

FairVote was also particularly interested in the permanent absentee ballot list proposal as a way to expand access to the polls. As Adam Fogel stressed it in his testimony, SB 293 would ensure that the most vulnerable among us (senior citizens in nursing homes, disabled citizens), as well as students studying out-of-state, and overseas voters, have the chance to cast a ballot in every election without having the burden of submitting an absentee ballot request before every single election. This bill would considerably strengthen Maryland law, according to which citizens do not need any excuse to vote absentee, and we’re hopeful that the Committee will report it favorably.

You can read Adam’s testimony for SB 293 here.

You can watch video of Adam Fogel, Ryan O'Donnell and Hans Riemer testifying below:

Watch the video on YouTube

The Gap (Redux)

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:11:30 -0800

While the Registration Gap between young people and the general population is a significant problem, an even more troubling gap is found in a new CIRCLE working paper titled, "Democracy for Some: The Civic Opportunity Gap in High School," by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh.

The authors "found that a student's race and academic track, and a school's average socioeconomic status (SES) determines the availability of the school-based civic learning opportunities that promote voting and broader forms of civic engagement." Furthermore, in all three of their studies, they observed that "students who are more academically successful or white and those with parents of higher socioeconomic status receive more classroom-based civic learning opportunities."

As I've written about previously, young people are turning out and voting at a higher rate than ever before during this presidential primary season. They are paying attention to the race and learning about the issues, but this study shows that not all young people are given the tools they need to become active participants in the democratic process. In fact, those young people who need the most attention (whose parents' don't vote) are getting even less classroom education about citizenship than those students who would probably be registered to vote anyway.

The numbers speak for themselves: In the Feb. 5th "Super Tuesday" contests, 18 to 29-year-olds with more education than high school were 18-percentage points more likely to vote than students with high school education or less. Put another way, 79-percent of the youth vote had more than high school education, while 21-percent had high school or less.

These facts, coupled together, should make youth voting activists take a step back and reevaluate how we talk about "the youth vote." While it's great that more young people are participating in the political process, we have to be aware that "young people" are not a monolithic group. Young people whose parents' don't vote or where their schools are not emphasizing civics (because they have to focus on reading, science, math, etc.) are being left behind. This inequity in schools is creating an underclass of citizens who lack the basic mechanics of participation. Things like how to request an absentee ballot or what it means to "vote provisionally" or even what to expect on Election Day, are basic lessons every young person should learn before graduation.

FairVote is working to ensure more young people who come from disadvantaged communities or whose parents don't participate in the political process have the same opportunities as their more affluent counterparts. We've introduced a civics curriculum called Learning Democracy that explores the history of suffrage and teaches the mechanics of participation. We also advocate for policies that makes conducing effective voter registration drives easier for high schools, like setting a uniform voter registration age of 16-years-old.

Both "gaps" that I've written about over the past couple of weeks are connected in a significant way. Voter registration policy in this county needs to put an emphasis on equality--ensuring all young people, regardless of their parents' voting behavior or where they grow up have an equal opportunity to register to vote and learn the mechanics of participation. As we move full-speed-ahead towards November's general election, I hope the media pays attention to these "gaps" in our civil society and the presidential candidates (of both parties) address this basic inequality in our education system.