Civic Education by Mandate: A State-by-State Analysis

Abstract

fessor anat chair of the department of political science at Winthrop University. She is the author of Media Entrepreneurs and the Media Enterprise in the U.S. Congress {1996 Hampton Press). Her current research is in the field of health policy. She regularly teaches courses in American institutions, the meclia, and public policy. She can be reachecl at kedrowskik@winthrop.eclu. A s a profession, political scientists have been interested in the state of civic education for nearly a century. The American Political Science Association (APSA) has been involved in a discussion of teaching political science, and communicating the desire to turn our students into educated, responsible citizens since its inception (Mann 1996; for a more negative interpretation, see Leonard 1999). More recently, the association has sponsored discussion of civic education in the pages of PS and elsewhere. This renewed interest stems in part from a concern about the quality of primary and secondary education in the United States generally, and in part from a concern about the decline in civic engagement in the United States (Putnam 1995). Today's traditional college students come to us with little interest in, and a cynicism of, public affairs that is disheartening to those who love politics (Bennett 1998; Hibbing and TheissMorse 1996; Mann 1999). Some efforts are underway to change this state of affairs. National standards for civic education from K-12 have been developed and critiqued (Dry 1996; Merelman 1996). A movement to incorporate service learning to promote good citizenship is growing nationwide (see for example, Battistoni and Hudson 1997; the September 2000 issue of PS). Many other articles offer advice topolitical science professors on means to instill a sense of civic duty in their students, consistent with the charge of APSA's Task Force on Civic Education (Carter and Elshtain 1997). However, none of these efforts will work unless the students are enrolled in courses that cover this material, whether in the primary, secondary, or post-secondary levels. One study by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (Tolo 1999) found that more than half of the states mandated some civic education at the K-12 levels; 49 states had content standards in civic education and 29 states require high school students to complete a course in government or civics. However, no similar study has been done at the postsecondary level. The purpose of this article is to determine how many states require college students to take some course in American government, civics, or similar subject matter, through state statute, regulation, or other binding state-level (not institutional) mandate.