When my 8-year-old started asking questions about the world, it hit me that there wasn’t a lot out there to guide parents in teaching their kids about being active, engaged citizens.

Manifestations of this gap are even more glaring in my college classroom, where many of my students do not know how to vote, haven’t read the Constitution and are unaware of the state and local political offices responsible for many of our quality-of-life decisions.

As a parent and as a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, I’ve seen firsthand how important civic knowledge is to young people — and how it is lacking. And this isn’t just a problem in my corner of the world; it’s a national challenge we can no longer ignore.

Despite the vast amount of information available at our fingertips, a staggering number of Americans struggle to grasp the fundamentals of our political system. Nationwide assessments reveal that civic knowledge hasn’t improved since 1998, with only 23 percent of eighth graders performing at or above the “proficient” level.

School curricula on civics often fall short. Scores on Advanced Placement government tests are consistently among the lowest across all AP offerings.

The urgency of this issue is magnified by our current political climate. A majority of people across party lines believe the country is heading in the “wrong direction.” Until we treat civic know-how as a fundamental skill, we will continue to be bewildered and disillusioned.

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox. 

With the upcoming national elections — and every election thereafter — we need to make civic education a top priority. Solutions need to be embedded in everyday life, both at home and in school.

While higher education institutions like Stevens can play a role in such education in early adulthood, as a country, we need to start much earlier.

There are multiple hurdles facing K-12 schools in teaching civics. After the No Child Left Behind Act, social studies and civics were sidelined in favor of reading and math.

Teachers in social studies and civics tend to be among the least supported, and often have to take on coaching or administrative roles in addition to their teaching duties.

Government classes, typically offered in the senior year of high school, come too late for students to develop a strong understanding, and state laws increasingly restrict political activities and discussion of various sociopolitical topics in schools.

For instance, Florida recently passed a law that effectively prevents third-party voter registration organizations from working in high schools and on college campuses. Plus, fears of parental complaints lead teachers to limit political conversations in the classroom.

This lack of prioritization of civics instruction must change. No one likes playing a game they don’t know the rules to, and it is simply unfair to have a child go through 13 years of school only to graduate without understanding the political system they’re stepping into.

That’s why I wrote “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It).” We need parents to play a key role, and to support integrating civics into every grade, starting early and building on concepts just like we do with other subjects.

Imagine if parents took on this role by discussing government and politics at the dinner table, encouraging their children to ask questions and showing them how to get involved in community and local government activities.

That way, we’d have more young adults who understand the system they will soon inherit.

Related: Rethinking civics education starts with inviting teens to co-create

Parents and educational leaders can do more in this arena. For young children, we should focus on building vocabulary and awareness of governmental structures.

This will involve reallocating school time to social studies and civics. Students need repeated exposure to new words and ideas to develop a working understanding, so the earlier the introduction, the better.

Children should study the primary documents of the U.S. to understand the basics of our system and begin to learn about primary elections, which are often only briefly covered in most school settings.

Visual models can help students make connections; lessons can include diagramming how a bill becomes a law, modeling checks and balances and discussing the overlapping and distinct powers in our federalist system.

We can also help children understand specific civic issues connected to their local communities.

Middle schoolers and high schoolers can handle broader concepts and ideas. Young people at this age can and do engage in community involvement; parents and schools should foster these efforts.

High school should be all about turning theory into action. Experts agree that a high-quality civic education requires “action civics,” in which students learn by doing rather than just reading. Simulations of elections, legislative hearings and courtroom activities are examples of active learning shown to be impactful and memorable.

Research shows that teaching civics through active learning is related to increased civic participation. If we want our students to get the most out of their education, we must prepare them to understand and engage with our political system.

Dedicated efforts to increase educational focus on civics will enhance student self-efficacy and ensure the vitality of our democratic traditions.

With the election on the horizon, now is the perfect time to start these conversations and integrate civic education into our daily lives.

This reprioritization has to happen day in and day out, during presidential election years and all others. By committing to this, we can raise a generation of informed, active citizens ready to take on the challenges of our democracy.

Let’s give our kids the tools they need to understand and participate in the world around them — starting now.

Lindsey Cormack is an associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and author of “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It).”

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

This story about civics education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

The post OPINION: We can and must start early and teach students to become active citizens appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

What do you think of when you hear the word “civics”? For most adults, civics likely conjures distant memories of a high school course in which they memorized the three branches of government and other constitutional trivia.

Unfortunately, that experience of civics hasn’t changed much. What has been missing from civics education for decades is deep civic learning, in which students come to understand what a good democratic government looks and feels like and deeply connect with their own capacity to shape the future.

What is the result? When it comes to politics and community involvement, young Americans — who are the most demographically diverse young generation in our nation’s history — often feel disconnected, left out of the discussion, disengaged from community resources, unwelcome, bored and ignored.

Such feelings are causing an unprecedented level of disillusionment with democracy, not just as a concept but as a way of life. A recent Harvard poll revealed that 64 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. have “more fear than hope about the future of democracy in America.” Likewise, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars’ Civic Outlook of Young Adults in America study of 18- to 24-year-old Americans revealed low knowledge and high levels of discontent with democracy; another poll found that only 27 percent of young people in Generation Z strongly agree with the statement that democracy is “the best form of government.”

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox. 

While the issue of low voter turnout among young people is something that well-meaning initiatives have tried to address for decades, it’s crucial to recognize that civics is about more than voting. At its heart, civics is about being an engaged and collaborative community member. But with so many young Americans feeling frustrated about the systems they see as broken, and increasingly unable to see channels in the existing structures to make things better, something needs to change.

The key is, as learning science has proven, that civic identity cannot be achieved without young people first feeling a sense of belonging and agency in their communities. Being aware of how their government works is not enough to motivate young people to take part in it. Today’s teens and young adults won’t take action if they don’t feel like they are seen for who they are, and that their voices, concerns and needs matter enough to older adults to be taken seriously.

The good news is, at a local and national level, community institutions are actively making efforts to reach out to and listen to young people. At a national level, the museum coalition Made By Us is researching what types of engagement methods actually connect with young Americans ahead of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

At the regional level, there are growing efforts to build networks for learning that center the unique needs of individual students.

In Pittsburgh, Remake Learning and The History Co:Lab have combined their shared passion for youth-centered learning to create the Civics Education Ecosystem. Fueled by a shared commitment to intergenerational co-creation as a key practice to inspire civic agency, the group’s recent Youth Design Day provided the opportunity for young people from across the region to identify and map spaces that emphasize their authentic participation. The day surfaced how a sense of belonging can be fostered in a wide range of institutions, from museums and government agencies to art centers and community spaces. At the same time, the youth participants highlighted that many institutions do not yet know how to meaningfully engage teens; in response, the teens crafted a workshop to train community organizations in authentic ways to encourage youth participation — a workshop that is taking place this October.

Related: We can and must start early and teach students to become active citizens

Building strong civic learning ecosystems, both in-person and online, is crucial in a world in which so much of young people’s lives are centered in digital spaces. Over 40 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 rely on social media as their primary news source, so it’s essential that young people have experiences that bridge across differences, connect to their hopes and needs and put the news they see online in context.

As the concept of learning ecosystems helps more people recognize the rich tapestry of opportunities that exist in their communities, now is the time for America to redesign civics education to center on local relationships and experiences. We know that young people seek hands-on, real-world knowledge, and that they want to be heard and involved. Let’s provide them with more possibilities to engage in civic learning and action beyond the confines of a textbook.

Let’s create more spaces where teens and young adults are recognized for their ideas, seen as equal partners in the civic process and feel like they truly belong. Only by inviting young people into the conversation, enabling them to lift and share their voices and encouraging their sense of agency and purpose will we help them grow up with the experience and knowledge they need to step into their civic roles as makers and leaders of our shared history.

Tyler Samstag is executive director of Remake Learning. Fernande Raine is the founder of The History Co:Lab. Together they have formed the Civics Education Ecosystem.

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

This story about civics education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

The post OPINION: Rethinking civics education starts with inviting teens to co-create appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

Three weeks before a ferociously contested U.S. election, the views and voices of students should be heard louder than ever – even those of young people who aren’t yet eligible to vote. Trouble is, many won’t have learned enough about the issues to develop informed and thoughtful opinions.

That’s partly because civics education in schools has significantly declined, a conundrum we’ve followed for years at The Hechinger Report. Many teachers say they are afraid to teach these topics in these sharply divided times while principals, too, fear discussing civics is simply too divisive.

Yet consider some of these startling, oft-repeated statistics:

• Only 49 percent of students who took the most recent NAEP exam said they have a class that is mainly focused on civics or the U.S. government;
• Only 29 percent said they had a teacher whose primary responsibility is teaching civics; 
• And more than 70 percent of Americans failed a basic civic literacy quiz; 1 in 3 couldn’t name or explain what our three branches of government do, a 2024 study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found. Most Americans could name only a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment in a recent Annenberg survey, and our civic knowledge has not improved since 1998.

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

Still, our schools have never made teaching civics a priority, Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, told me, echoing what I hear from countless advocates and educators. 

“Teaching the election should be the Super Bowl of this re-engagement, as all eyes are on our single most important democratic process,” Dube said. “The K-12 education system is a reflection of what our society judges as important, and citizenship is low on the list.”

What’s happened in the age of social media is even more concerning: Young people share a distrust of the media no matter what their partisan bias: Half of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. say they have some or a lot of trust in the information they get from social media sites, the Pew Research Center found, while 4 out of 10 young adults get their news from TikTok.

Related: OPINION: We did not need the Nation’s ‘Report Card’ to tell us we must invest in civic education

Clearly, there is enormous work to be done, and schools must do their part. The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for Democracy will hold a virtual conversation about potential solutions this week.

Many students, meanwhile, want to be more informed and engaged in the issues, one reason why The Hechinger Report is teaming up with Retro Report to highlight the lack of civics education in the U.S., along with solutions, resources and ideas for solving it.

Students make the most convincing argument of all in Retro Report’s new four-part series “Citizen Nation,” which premiered on PBS on Oct. 8. The series follows teenagers from across the country competing in We the People, the nation’s premier civics competition. The competition stacks teams of students from 48 states against one another, and they must argue their points before a panel of judges acting as members of Congress.

“Citizen Nation” introduces us to public school students from Las Vegas to suburban Virginia and rural Wyoming. Theirs are the voices that will shape our future — and they are filled with determination. Watching these students learn about our constitution, answer tough questions and prepare to compete in a national contest is a reminder of what is at stake in our country — and gives me hope for the next generation.

“People nowadays don’t sit down and talk. We don’t actually listen to one another,” says Elias Wallace, a Wyoming high schooler aiming for a computer engineering degree on an ROTC scholarship, at one point during the series. “Instead, we just say no, no, no, you’re wrong. We don’t say — here’s why. … I feel that if we communicate, life would be a whole lot better for everyone.’’

Then there is Elizabeth (Eli) Fakoya, daughter of Nigerian immigrants in Las Vegas, who hopes to study law and grew up in a house where the news is constantly on. She prepares for the upcoming competition with a ferocious intensity.

“I’ve just learned that I really like debating politics, and I like to give speeches on it, and I like to discuss it. So, I’m always prepared for any topic,” she says.

Hearing from teachers and students throughout the series is a breath of optimism in these fraught times. David Kendrick, who teaches government and history at Loganville High School in Loganville, Georgia, often reminds his students that they are experiencing an election like no other.

Related: OPINION: A better democracy starts in our schools

“It’s very important that our up-and-coming adults, meaning our students, are aware and ready for their chance to take over and to ‘do it right,’ which we have struggled with doing here in the past,” Kendrick said.

“This is the most important class you will ever take in your high school career because you need to know your rights,” teacher Erin Lindt tells her students in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “You need to know if there is an issue, how to solve a problem. I think our world is headed in a really scary direction, and my generation has shown that they’re not going to solve it. But we can get the next generation to.”

It’s going to take a lot more than conversations in classrooms, at conferences and during one annual competition, though, to change the trajectory for civics education, even at a time when some state legislatures have passed bills to enhance civic education.

After the last 2020 contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Scott Warren, the founder of Generation Citizen, lamented that students aren’t learning “meaningful discourse, or how to discuss controversial issues. … When we fail to properly prioritize and fund civics education holistically, our discourse and democracy erode.”

Related: Teaching action civics engages kids and ignites controversy

To be sure, there are plenty of encouraging efforts, as Dubé notes, pointing to the iCivics games and videos played more than 9 million times a year.

And Michael Rebell argues in his book “Flunking Democracy” that failure to teach civics is a violation of both federal and state constitutions that can only be addressed by the courts, as some are now doing. (Rebell is the executive director of the Center for Educational Equity and a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where the Hechinger Report is an independent, nonprofit unit.)

In the months to come, we’ll be updating our project to include more student voices, essays and ideas on how to improve civics education. We welcome yours: Write to editor@hechingerreport.org

I’ve already reached out to a few experts who have spent years pushing for change, wondering how they are finding optimism.

“What gives me hope is that, despite the lack of formal efforts to reform civics education, so many of our kids are finding ways to go out into communities and get their hands dirty,” said Jonathan Collins, a writer, political scientist, and education policy scholar, also based at Teachers College, Columbia University. “They’re starting new organizations dedicated to addressing our society’s most pressing problems. We’ve left them in the dark, but they’re finding their own lights. It’s beautiful to see.”

There will be many other efforts and court arguments in the months and years to come no matter who wins in November, but let us hope for now that the voices of students will carry the day.

“I’m not satisfied with the way the world is right now,” Ethan Bull, a Las Vegas student activist whose parents work in the casino industry notes, while preparing for the competition. “But I try not to let all the negativity in the world get to me. Because if I let it consume me, then maybe I might become just another generic person who’s complacent with the system.”

Contact editor in chief Liz Willen at 917-690-2089 or willen@hechingerreport.org.

This story about civics education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletters.

The post ​COLUMN: Students want more civics education, but far too few schools teach it appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

As the start of the school year approaches, high schools, colleges and universities across the country are figuring out how to help young people navigate the 2024 elections during these highly polarized and contentious times.

Here’s a way we can help students become informed and active participants in our democracy, while potentially avoiding fights in classrooms and on playing fields: Provide them with free, digital access to their community’s local newspaper so they can read it on their phones.

Engaging young people in democracy — getting them to follow the news and to vote — has always been a concern for educators and has always been a challenge. Young people pay less attention to the news and participate less than older people. This was the case fifty years ago and remains the case today.

That’s why in Oneonta, New York, Hartwick College’s newly launched Institute of Public Service is offering students a free digital subscription to the local paper, The Daily Star. This new initiative has emerged from the institute’s mission to help young people become more informed about and engaged with local government and the issues affecting the community where they go to school.

Related: Interested in innovations in the field of higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly Higher Education newsletter.

It’s no surprise that the vast majority of teens report spending a lot of time on social media, especially YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram; a growing share say that they are on social media “almost constantly,” a recent report by the Pew Research Center shows.

Young people also say that social media is the most common way that they get news; many add that they do not actively seek out news, but are only exposed to it incidentally as part of their curated social media feeds.

Reliance on social media for information about candidates, policies and the actions of our government is a serious problem since much of the news content on social media is not the product of authentic, verified journalism. Inaccurate, misleading and conspiratorial information is common.

Moreover, the way social media algorithms work, readers with certain political leanings will increasingly be exposed only to content reflecting those leanings. This dynamic makes it hard for young people to find any common ground across partisan divides.

Providing young people with barrier-free access to a local newspaper is a concrete way for educational institutions to counter that trend and foster engaged citizenship.

This works because local politics is much less partisan than national politics, as New York Timescolumnist Ezra Klein pointed out in “Why We’re Polarized.” In most localities, we still see Democrats and Republicans working together to solve problems. The work of local government directly affects the lives of those in their communities.

Furthermore, Pew Research shows that Americans of both parties see value in local newspapers. Views about local news are not as starkly divided as opinions about the national media. As a result, local government and local news provide a good entry point to democracy for young people.

I’m heartened by new partnerships between local news outlets and academic institutions across the country, such as the one at the University of Vermont, through which the school is providing journalism students with the opportunity to write for local newspapers and get hands-on civic experience while also helping provide professional news coverage for their communities.

Related: Could colleges make voting as popular as going to football games?

By investing in local news, schools and colleges can invest both in their communities and in democracy. Due to the changing news media environment, local newspapers have been in serious decline. Over the past several decades, we have seen hundreds close down. Currently, the majority of counties in America have only one local newspaper or, even more problematically, none at all.

Without local news, it is very difficult for people and communities to know what their local elected officials are doing and to hold power to account.

Many high school and college libraries have databases that allow students to search and access stories from a range of newspapers, and these are wonderful services. But they also take time and work to access, requiring students to log in and wade through multiple portals to get to news stories. And often the content in these databases is not updated throughout the day.

Giving students subscriptions to their local newspapers enables them to simply click the app on their phones and start reading.

Moreover, research shows that, like many other democratic behaviors, including voting, reading a newspaper and following the news is a habit: Once you start doing it, you are likely to continue.

At Hartwick, we hope that providing free, easy access to our local newspaper will result in more students consuming verified, objective news and lead to more informed and thoughtful discussions on campus and in our classrooms.

We encourage other schools to do the same. Nudging even a handful of students to become lifelong newspaper readers is a way for educational institutions to transform the lives of those students while strengthening our democracy — and our local newspapers.

Laurel Elder is professor and chair of political science at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., and is co-director of the Hartwick Institute of Public Service.

This story about college students and newspapers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

The post OPINION: Here’s an old-fashioned, win-win idea to get students engaged before this fall’s election appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

CHICAGO — At this week’s Democratic National Convention, I spoke to left-leaning students about their biggest concerns with higher education: high tuition costs and access. The conversations were a departure from what young conservatives told me was their top issue at last month’s Republican National Convention: free speech. 

That said, amid nationwide crackdowns on campus protest, some of the young Democrats I spoke with shared sentiments similar to their Republican counterparts. They said they were worried about preserving academic freedom and a space for mutual understanding and respect on campuses nationwide.

I asked both groups of students whether they believe education institutions nationwide are fulfilling their purpose in society, and about the role of diversity in college curriculum. While conservative students told me DEI initiatives blocked equal opportunity in the classroom and the workforce, liberal ones emphasized opportunity gaps in marginalized communities. 

What follows are some of my questions and their replies. Interviews have been edited for clarity.

Related: Interested in innovations in the field of higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly Higher Education newsletter.

How did you first get into politics?

“My family owns a small farm in Iowa, that’s where my grandparents are from. My family have been Democrats since the New Deal and since Roosevelt brought electricity and plumbing to my great grandparents’ home … As part of that, it’s our job to make sure those same policies and politics of caring for other people is brought to the 21st century.” — Michael Clausen, a rising senior at Loyola University Chicago

“I have voted for the Democratic Party in general. I voted for Joe Biden in 2020, and I voted for Democrats in the midterms. But I vote for them because I dislike the Republicans more, is really how I feel about it. Especially being in Ohio, the policies the Republicans are pushing. My access to HRTs [hormone replacement therapies] has been under threat multiple times last year, so I mostly vote for the Democrats to kick out the Republicans.” — Sean Bridge, a rising senior at the University of Cincinnati

When deciding which college to attend, what were your criteria? Did your political beliefs play a role?

“The main reason I chose Florida is because of Bright Futures, a program where if you make over a certain SAT score and have a certain GPA, you get a completely free, full ride to any [in-state] public university. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the private schools I got into out of state. I wanted to get out of Florida, but the tuition out of state is astronomical and the financial aid is nonexistent.” — Morgan Vanderlaan, a sophomore at the University of Florida in Gainesville

“The reason I didn’t end up applying to Notre Dame or Vanderbilt was because I saw the majority of their students were conservative. I grew up in a high school that was mostly conservative, and I’d have enough of that. I didn’t want to go into a place where I wouldn’t find people like myself.” — Alyssa Manthi, a rising junior at the University of Chicago

What is the purpose of an American higher education? Are institutions achieving that purpose right now?

“Our purpose as people in higher education is to teach people what we learn and pass that down to the general public … because not everyone can afford to go to higher education … But the education field is not really geared for you to say ‘Hey, I learned a lot, now it’s time to teach my community.’ That’s not really what they’re pushing for. They’re pushing for ‘Hey, you learned all this information, now it’s time to get a job. Now it’s time to get some money.’” — Arnold Brown, a third-year student at DePaul University’s College of Law in Chicago

“The pursuit of knowledge is always the purpose of higher education, but there’s also trying to diversify the elite of a society and make leaders that are more responsive to everybody. We have to look beyond institutions in the Ivies or in the top elites because that’s only really about 6 percent or less of the student population. There are people from state schools, from schools in the South and places you’re not really looking that have people with skills. If you’re trying to diversify the elite and trying to make the leading spaces of America look like America, you can’t go to the same 20 schools.” — Sandra Ukah, a sophomore at the University of Florida in Gainesville

“College is so important to learn how to be civically engaged, and I think a lot of colleges need to have a greater focus on this. What you don’t want happening is for people in the elite to go to these colleges and use those resources just to contribute to their own personal wealth and gain.” — Meghana Halbe, a rising junior at the University of Chicago

Where is your college failing?

“For many students, college has become unaffordable. More and more students are working two, three jobs in order to put themselves through college and taking on tons of debt. I know so many people at my own university who had to drop out because of the financial burden that university was putting on them, and I go to a public school in Ohio.” — Sean Bridge

“The cost is such a huge factor, but it goes beyond cost. It’s more of an issue of access … [College admissions] are so competitive, you can’t just have good grades, you can’t just have good test scores. You need a fantastic essay and a fantastic list of extracurriculars. It makes it so hard for people who grow up in disadvantaged communities where they don’t have access to the same sorts of extracurriculars, after-school programs, the same sorts of pre-college support that are found in richer communities.” — Michael Clausen

“In Georgia, our biggest issue is that we don’t get enough funding to our public HBCUs. They have been historically underfunded. I’ve been to these campuses and they need every bit of that funding. You can’t teach kids in a run down classroom … If students can’t get better education facilities, how can we expect them to get a higher education?” — Blake Robinson, Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Class of 2024

“At my school I feel like we often only care about outward appearances. Fordham overaccepts students, but there are so many students that are pushed out of housing, or forced to live in quads or we don’t have space for. We just re-did a cafeteria … while my campus at the Lincoln Center has problems with air conditioning, we’ve had mold and the answer is ‘We’re so sorry, we can’t fix that for you.’” — Sigalit Shure, a rising junior at Fordham University

“The protest for the ceasefire in Gaza. UChicago believes in the freedom of speech so they definitely gave some room to protest, but they shut it down because of institutional neutrality, which I definitely want to question in some ways. UChicago continues to face issues with what they mean by freedom of speech and how that can look on college campuses.” — Meghana Halbe

What is the value of being exposed to a diverse set of curriculum?

“[After college] people are going to encounter so many different communities, different perspectives and different experiences, and they need to be prepared for that. The people trying to ban diversity, ban women’s and gender studies, they’re trying to say that those things don’t matter and our movements don’t matter but they do. They are a representation of our history. We’re not going to let them be taken away.” — Victoria Hinckley, a University of South Florida Tampa student who said she doesn’t identify with either party and was expelled this spring for her involvement in the encampment protests

“A lot of the times the classes I’m taking are being taught through rose-colored glasses because they’re just not teaching anything beyond the sphere of America … and they’re only teaching the good things in America and not the bad things. And if history is not taught in its complete state, then it will be repeated. If we do not fix the issue right now, it’s going to get out of control and a degree from Florida or the South will not be on par with institutions that value DEI and DEI practices.” — Morgan Vanderlaan

“In a peak higher education environment, you want the free exchange of ideas, that’s what a college is supposed to be about. With diversity in a college, you have that. I have been in spaces where the higher education atmosphere is not diverse, and in ones where it is so diverse it’s insane to me. In those diverse areas, I feel more educated.” — Blake Robinson

Can you have productive conversations with people who have different beliefs on your campus? Have your experiences in college challenged your own beliefs?

“The greatest challenges to my beliefs have been as a result of the club I started, it’s a bipartisan club where we meet with conservatives on campus who are a minority. … Ultimately it’s all about trying to understand what other people think, why they think what they think. Most people are rational. If you try to understand them and leverage their views you can always have a bit more productive conversation.” — Angel Mosqueda, a rising senior at Elmhurst University in Chicago

“There are a couple of outspoken conservatives on campus, I haven’t had the best conversations with them. I think a lot of the time there’s a breakdown in what we believe to be fact because we use very different sources and sometimes they misconstrue data.” — Emilie Tueting, a rising junior at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois

“I’ve actually been able to have a lot of productive conversations … I was able to interact with [conservatives] on a person to person level, that did a good job of taking me out of the very reactionary and polarized identity I’d come to have. With social media, it’s very easy to get siloed into one group.” — Alyssa Manthi

“[I was challenged] on the issue of the genocide happening in Gaza. At first I was very wary to label it as anything. Just from my background, growing up in Jewish youth group, there’s an agenda that’s being pushed on you. … When I finally started talking to people outside of my bubble, who had different perspectives, I realized so much of what I grew up with is propaganda. It opened up my eyes to this new world.” — Sigalit Shure

“Personally, I have been challenged, but I’m very firm in what I believe. As a minority, as a Black man, I know what I want for the future of the country and I know the policies I personally would like to push. I’ve had conversations with Republicans pretty much opposite of me. With what they’re saying, it’s really important to listen and understand where other people are coming from, but my personal standpoint is not really going to change because of my background, who I represent and who I want to represent.” — Arnold Brown

This story about the Democratic National Convention was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

The post What young Democrats have to say about higher education appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

Moral discourse in the U.S. has sunk to new lows and needs to be addressed. In part, as a response, Louisiana’s governor just signed off on a misguided approach: A law requiring that every public classroom in the state display the Ten Commandments.

The Republican sponsor of the legislation argues that this biblical text “shows what a moral code we all should live by is.”

Many of us, raised in Jewish, Christian or Islamic traditions, value these commandments, but Louisiana’s approach is not the solution to the problem.

If proponents of such laws in Louisiana and elsewhere are serious about wanting to improve moral education, they need to take a different approach.

First, Louisiana’s legislation violates the division of church and state. Our Founding Fathers, following an era of fierce religious persecution of Protestants, Catholics and others, fought for religious freedom.

“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship. … Nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief,” Thomas Jefferson wrote.

Today, many Americans are Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics or, increasingly, “spiritual but not religious”; and many are wary of organized religion, given recent scandals and abuses of power.

They may not want an Old Testament document hanging in every classroom.

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

Second, as a country, we are facing mounting moral quandaries, concerning climate change, abortion, vaccines, artificial intelligence and other topics that the Ten Commandments do not address.

At the moment, the fate of Louisiana’s law is unclear. Its proponents hope that a lawsuit from critics will ultimately make its way to the conservative-leaning Supreme Court and that the law will be upheld.

Yet, regardless of the outcome, the new law offers a critical opportunity to reflect on broader questions of how best to enhance moral education in our country and provide a moral compass for our students. Though this new law disturbs many observers, we should see it as a rare opportunity to consider and potentially change how and what we teach.

It provides a chance to contemplate seriously how to improve moral discourse in schools in ways that go beyond narrow, parochial approaches, and examine the very real challenges we face as a nation.

Philosophers from Aristotle and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg have described how moral education starts with the young. Research has shown how children learn values early, and how education plays an important role in promoting character formation, good citizenship and democratic values, including respect and caring for, and tolerance of, others.

Unfortunately, teachers do not always adequately attend to these topics and students then give the subjects low status.

When teachers do address moral education, they often lack age-appropriate curricula. Fourth graders and 12th graders clearly differ, and instructors must gear their efforts appropriately to each grade level’s capacities.

In addition, researchers have highlighted that moral education should be given not only through lectures and readings of particular philosophical or religious texts but also through role modeling and discussions of real dilemmas, with students thinking through and articulating arguments.

As part of this approach, we need to teach critical-thinking skills and emphasize the importance of looking at all relevant facts and principles and any biases we may have. In debates about today’s moral controversies, for instance, various politicians and pundits frequently voice just a single ethical precept, while neglecting others. A pundit might argue for individual freedom — for example, that factories have a right to burn as much fossil fuel as they want, or that people have a right to refuse all vaccines — while ignoring risks to the environment or other people, principles of social justice and alternative perspectives.

And we must apply ethical principles that can address our contemporary moral challenges explicitly. Scholars generally think that the Ten Commandments were first written down at a specific time, probably 3,500 to 2,500 years ago — according to the Bible, by a member of a single tribe of people who had been wandering around in the desert for 40 years.

Related: TEACHER VOICE: How the sad shadow of book banning shuts down conversations and lacerates librarians

Today, as a part of a population of roughly 8 billion people, we confront a very different, globalized, technologically advanced world. The Ten Commandments address a relatively narrow set of responsibilities — to parents, God and the Sabbath and to not murdering, stealing, bearing false witness, committing adultery or coveting our neighbor’s house or belongings.

This list is important, but ignores our other vital responsibilities — for instance, to our planet, our wider society, peace and the poor.

If we want to teach the Ten Commandments, perhaps as part of a wider curriculum, we should consider additional moral guidelines as well.

Here are some I would suggest:

• Thou shalt think of future generations.
• Thou shalt respect the Earth, avoid contributing to climate change and use alternative energy sources.
• Thou shalt work toward world peace.
• Thou shalt consider the greater social good, not just thine own personal benefit.
• Thou shalt consider the poor and disadvantaged (a message preached by both Buddha and Jesus).
• Thou shalt respect those with whom thou dost disagree.
• Thou shalt consider all the facts and not just cherry pick them.
• Thou shalt consider the long-term, not just the short-term, implications of thine own actions.
• Thou shalt accept responsibility for thine own actions and not just blame others.
• Thou shalt question thyself and think critically about thy viewpoints.

These suggestions can serve as a starting point, as part of a broader discussion among educators, policymakers and others, of how best to teach our students to act ethically.

Dr. Robert Klitzman is a professor of psychiatry and director of the Bioethics master’s program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies, and the author of “Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains, and Healing the Whole Person”

This story about moral education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

The post OPINION: Schools can and should address our country’s mounting moral quandaries appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

MILWAUKEE — As Republican lawmakers target college diversity efforts and Democrats bemoan high tuition costs and advocate for student loan forgiveness, higher education has become increasingly politicized. These issues matter to young voters, which makes their opinions about them important to both parties. 

I went to the Republican National Convention last week on a mission to talk to students and young voters about how their experiences in higher education have shaped their political beliefs, and vice versa. 

I asked student attendees about the political climate on their campuses, the role of diversity in their curriculum and where higher education is falling short. At the heart of it all, I especially wanted to know what they saw as the purpose of an American higher education. 

Conservative students told me free speech was a top campus issue for them. Some said they struggled to have productive conversations with peers who held different viewpoints, and that they became bolder in their political views because of that. Yet several offered ideas for increasing unity on campus and said they believe it’s still possible.

What follows are some of my questions and their replies. (Interviews have been edited for clarity.) 

How did you first get into politics? 

“My mom is a single mother. She raised me and my sister and taught us a lot of the conservative ideals, like working for yourself, making money, not taking government handouts, and she’s been my inspiration to join the conservative Republican movement.” — Alexandra Leung, a rising junior at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri

“I came from a pretty conservative family but didn’t develop an interest until 2020. I feel like there was a very big social agenda push that I could not oppose — I didn’t disagree with all of that, but it felt really hard to know that I was living in a system that was really vilifying you if you were against widespread social change.” — Benjamin Heinz, a rising sophomore at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois

When deciding what college to attend, what were your criteria? Did your political beliefs play a role? 

“I toured a lot of schools where they weren’t open to new ideas about culture. There are a lot of places where the ideas the students have are so dang strong, if you don’t have them, they won’t take you. I didn’t want to go to a place that would reject me for who I am.” — Benjamin Heinz

“I thought about how tolerable the college would be to all students. I wanted my school to match my religious beliefs, and picked a Jesuit Catholic Institution.” — Alexandra Leung 

“I like putting myself in uncomfortable positions. I would rather go into places where people disagree with me than agree with me — not because I want to rile them up, but because I want to win them over, not in terms of convince them that my ideas are right but win them over in terms of becoming friends, working with each other, becoming unlikely allies and unlikely collaborators.” — Benjamin Backer, University of Washington, Class of 2020 

Related: Interested in innovations in the field of higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly Higher Education newsletter.

What is the purpose of an American higher education? 

“One of the primary roles of higher education is to prepare students for their careers. It should prepare students to do well in society and to perform well as citizens – both things that higher education has almost become misguided in, with the current course offerings and directions institutions are currently going.” — Aaron Carlson, Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, Class of 2024

“[College is] the one place that you should feel free to have open debate and discussion. If not, what is the point of college? What is the point of going to higher education, if you can’t just try to decipher the truth for yourself? Universities have to do a good job of instilling that value in students from the second they set foot on the campus.” — Christopher Phillips, a rising senior at the University of Chicago 

“A university should care about ideas, not shelter people from ideas. I think that the quickest way to educate people is to expose them to ideas that are different to them.” — Benjamin Heinz

Where is your college education failing?

“We should not know what political party your professor identifies with. It’s really poisoning the American higher education system.” — Alexandra Leung 

“A lot of higher education institutions are left-leaning in terms of their faculty and staff. That impacts what students are thinking in terms of their beliefs and [what they] go on to believe later in life, as well, and contributes to narrow-mindedness.” — Aaron Carlson 

“My peers don’t have a lot of impact on my career. But my professors do. I plan on going to grad school. Well, how am I going to get in to grad school? My professors better like me. If there are people that are my physics professors that are significantly further to the left than I am, I do feel concerned about what happens if I do start to get more vocal with my advocacy.” — Benjamin Heinz 

“Especially in the humanities, you have professors who are not necessarily the arbiters of truth but trying to facilitate discussion and teach people how to think, not necessarily what to think. That’s a challenging line to walk for professors. It’s OK for them to share their political beliefs, but they better make darn well sure they’re giving students from all points of the spectrum equal opportunity to pursue intellectual curiosities.” — Christopher Phillips

Can you have productive conversations with people who have different beliefs on your campus? 

“I never have productive conversations with anybody. It’s hard to even have a Republican organization on our campus because we’re so silenced.” — Alexandra Leung

“College was an eye-opener for me, having students who have different ideas but aren’t willing to be challenged on those ideas.” — Aaron Carlson

“I have talked to people who I know are definitely liberal and I have come away learning that with young people, we have a lot of shared principles, a lot of shared perspectives on things that have been happening in the 2020s. Things like corporate power, mainstream media censorship and the consolidation of media narratives. Those are things young people on the left agree with me on. We need more open discourse. People who are actually engaged in the political process on the left are more likely to subscribe to open discourse.” — Christopher Phillips 

Related: Culture wars on campus start to affect students’ choices for college 

“I moved to a very liberal place in Seattle [for college]. Most liberals I went to school with were so excited that a conservative was trying to lead on the environment, because outside of the confines of partisan politics, most people realize that you can’t, even if you’re a liberal, you can’t do this without conservatives. It really opened my mind to the idea that Americans do want the environment to be nonpartisan.” — Benjamin Backer, now an activist pushing for environmental progress 

Have your experiences in college challenged your own beliefs?

“The topic of racial justice was something I had kind of dismissed. I thought America was fine; I thought our race system was fine because I had never experienced seeing racism firsthand. But I hadn’t realized the generational issue. I still think America, nine times out of 10 or more, gives people the best chance to succeed here, of all races and backgrounds, but because of generational issues and making entire groups of people start at a harder place in society, it makes it more difficult for people to succeed.” — Benjamin Backer 

“I’ve gotten more used to what the other side thinks, I’ve talked to a lot of people who think different things. I’ve gained a lot more respect for people who disagree with me.” — Benjamin Heinz

“I was more emboldened in what I believe. I didn’t go into college planning to be an activist, as far as advancing American values. It turned out that I was able to use my role as a student to be a voice for that on campus, something I didn’t see myself doing coming into college, but then through college I had the opportunity to.”  — Aaron Carlson

“I became more Republican in college even though I go to a more liberal institution. I think it’s because when I tried to have mature conversations with people who may not agree with me, it just never went well. There was no respect for me even though I gave full respect to them. I think that showed me that I need to fight harder for what I believe in.” — Alexandra Leung  

Has DEI been a part of your curriculum or experience in college? Has it been beneficial to your education, or hindered your learning? 

“DEI courses are required in my college curriculum and they are adding critical race theory into our education as a mandatory required class. I can see the idea behind them but the way that they’re implemented is more dividing than what they imagined.” — Alexandra Leung 

“DEI prevents the most competent, best people being picked for positions. As much as I want to see people as part of a team brought in from every different perspective, I don’t want it to take positions from people who work hard to earn those positions. I saw a little bit of that at my institution. We should judge people on their character, not by how they look.” — Aaron Carlson 

Do you see a path forward? 

“Young people do crave a degree of intellectual discourse and open debate. I think they do more so than previous generations. You have this caricature of Gen Z people as being intolerant, as not wanting to hear from the other side. While it’s true that the country as a whole is more polarized … you will find people are a lot more willing to speak than this caricature might portray.” — Christopher Phillips 

“A big thing colleges could do, they could hire a lot more conservative professors. And admit a lot more conservative students. We need to start broadening our horizons of what speech we allow on campuses.” — Benjamin Heinz 

“[On] an issue like the environment, and race and gender issues, conservatives need to show people that they also care about the issues [that those who oppose them] care about. When I told liberals on campus — who hated conservatives — that I was working on environmental issues, almost all their walls came down. They realized, ‘Oh, this person isn’t evil. They have different beliefs than me but the same end goal; they care.” — Benjamin Backer

In August, I plan to talk to young attendees in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention — which will be especially interesting now that President Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 race. 

This story about the Republican National Convention was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

The post What young Republicans have to say about higher education appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

On Earth Day, 2024, the Biden White House announced “Major Steps” toward the “Landmark American Climate Corps Initiative, Mobilizing the Next Generation of Climate Leaders.”

What that amounts to thus far is a website, currently in beta, that, on day one, listed under 2,000 jobs. Many, if not most, already existed at other agencies. Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell, the ACC’s point person at AmeriCorps, told me, “We are using existing authorities and funds to start the American Climate Corps.” Translation: There is no big new bucket of federal money for this program, yet.

So, why make the announcement now? At the risk of sounding cynical, it might have something to do with shoring up the youth vote, where Biden seems to be slipping.

During the last Presidential election cycle, the Sunrise Movement, Green New Deal Network, and other groups pushed Biden to guarantee more good, green jobs. Saul Levin, political and campaigns director at the Green New Deal Network, is one activist who told me the White House announcement is a win: “We certainly would like to see it dramatically scaled up, but I’m really optimistic. Any program has to start somewhere.”

To be fair, this really is just the beginning. Throughout the first year, there will be 20,000 total American Climate Corps positions, ranging from summer jobs to one-year slots, Shaheen-McConnell said; 200,000 are planned within five years. Some of these will be created through three newly announced “corps” partnerships with AmeriCorps and other federal agencies and nonprofits: one for forests, one for climate-smart agriculture, and one for communities transitioning away from coal and other fossil fuel-based economies. In addition, Shaheen-McConnell said, 13 states thus far have launched their own climate corps, most of which rely on some AmeriCorps funding.

Sally Slovenski, the program director for Campus Climate Action Corps, told me a national call to action is “really critical.” She said it would “definitely help raise awareness and recruit.” Her group is the first nationwide AmeriCorps program focused only on campus-based and community-led climate action initiatives, and the source of many listings on the current American Climate Corps site.

Carla Walker-Miller, CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services, a Michigan-based energy efficiency company, is one business leader who’s excited about the recruitment potential of a national climate service program. “The new workforce demands training and innovation to support the new economy,” she said. “I really appreciate the fact that the Climate Corps exists. There has to be an easily accessible online clearing house – a one stop shop.”

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

There’s some fuzziness, though, about what, exactly, makes something a climate job. Does wildfire fighting count? What about trail maintenance? Or educating park visitors on “stewardship”? Shaheen-McConnell said her agency intentionally took a “broad lens” because “every community is facing different climate challenges.”

That wide focus may be confusing to potential applicants. “Young people don’t understand how climate-related service work falls into what I call ‘the 4 Rs’ – reduction, response, recovery, and resilience/preparedness work,” said Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University who studies climate and social movements. AmeriCorps and other federal agencies have given her research funding to evaluate their climate-related service work and help them build it out in an effective way.  For example, she’s developing a curriculum to help participants better understand how their service work relates to climate change.  

Rebecca Tarczy is a current AmeriCorps member with the Campus Climate Action Corps, Slovenski’s organization. Tarczy loves animals; she graduated with an environmental studies degree in fisheries and wildlife, and pictured herself working outside. Instead, her position at College of the Atlantic in Maine entails doing community education on energy efficiency.

So far, she’s installed insulation in campus buildings, and held three public information sessions on and off campus, each of which had fewer than 10 attendees. She said it’s been a bit of a letdown for herself and peers in similar positions. “I think we were all a little disappointed that it was home-energy based.” For what it’s worth, by Fisher’s definition, this is very much a climate-action job; buildings account for around 29 percent of U.S. carbon emissions.

Tarczy, 30, is also pretty strapped for cash. AmeriCorps pays her an $18,000 salary, plus some student loan forgiveness benefits. She gets subsidized housing, too: $640 a month, including utilities and Wi-Fi. “Recently my car died and I kind of had to sell my soul to get a new one,” she said, adding that when she applied for an auto loan, “They were like, ‘Is that your correct salary?’”

The stinginess of AmeriCorps stipends has been a long-time issue that critics say prevents the program from being as equitable as it could be. “We can do so much better,” said Walker-Miller, who notes that her own employees start at $19 an hour. “I think that all jobs should compensate people at a reasonable minimum wage.”

Shaheen-McConnell said the president is calling on Congress to raise the minimum living allowance for AmeriCorps members to at least $15 an hour (which would be approximately $30,000 as an annual salary, although AmeriCorps positions vary in duration and hours). The American Climate Corps is also seeking partnerships with philanthropies to provide support like childcare for those who need it.

Related: What does it look like when higher ed actually takes climate change seriously?

The American Climate Corps is a clear historical callback to the Civilian Conservation Corps, created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression to put people back to work. But it’s a lot smaller. For nine years, CCC employed around 300,000 people per year, at a time when the U.S. population was about 40 percent of its current size. Those young people, all men, planted 2 billion trees, built over 125,000 miles of roads and trails, and fought forest fires (some say they went overboard in fire suppression).

Standing up a big new public jobs program from scratch hasn’t been done in a long time. Fisher, of American University, said that growing the corps through a “distributed, federated” approach instead of one big, new program poses difficulties that could get in the way of the program’s effectiveness. Seven different federal agencies, with vastly different goals and mandates, signed the American Climate Corps Memorandum of Understanding: the departments of Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps.

States, especially those with Republicans in charge, may have their own, very different view of what a climate job is.

But hopefully, Fisher said, these differences can be overcome by careful evaluation and coordination. “I am a huge supporter of the ‘let many flowers bloom’ approach,” she said, “as long as they are all blooming to solve the climate crisis.”

This column about the American Climate Corps jobs was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post COLUMN: Biden wants to save the climate by deploying young people. He’s not there yet appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

School board service is one of the most overlooked public offices in America. School boards make decisions ranging from how much our teachers get paid to whether students must wear uniforms. They oversee massive budgets and employ superintendents to oversee their priorities and goals. They even decide what time students start school.

Right now, there’s a massive effort in America to politicize school boards with polarizing efforts, from banning books to banning pride flags and limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ students. Yet, for far too long, students have been left out of decision-making conversations, even though our voices are needed more than ever, and our perspectives are vital for fostering inclusive and effective governance.

But running for a school board as a young person is not an easy task. You face a lot of questions: Are you qualified? What life experiences do you bring to the table? I had to answer these questions when I ran to become the youngest elected official in Arizona last year, and now I have some answers.

My qualifications? I am a student affected by every school board decision made. Experience? I have a closer view of the effects of school board decisions than most school board members.

Related: Do fraught school board meetings offer a view of the future?

I ran for the Littleton Elementary School District governing board while I was 17, and was elected while finishing out my senior year of high school. I advocated for clean energy, health services and ensuring that teachers and staff are supported, and I pushed for policies that support teacher retention.

Since being elected, I have completed several fellowships, along with professional development training to enhance my knowledge as a board member. I have also advocated for making sure that our district is a safe and welcoming environment for students and for the people we employ.

I’ve voted to establish longevity pay for our staff, provide attendance bonuses for our bus drivers and open a new dual-language school. I will keep pushing for these crucial improvements, as well as for establishing student representatives on the board to ensure students have a direct voice in policies that affect them, like reforming our code of conduct, disciplinary and dress code policies to allow students to fully express themselves.

Aside from my own experiences,I want to mention otheryoung people who are reshaping policies and decision-making by serving on school boards throughout the U.S.

• Armando Montero, an advocate for mental health, began running for the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board in Arizona when he was still in high school and was elected in 2020. He then worked to pass a new mental health policy and improve student-to-counselor ratios and became president of the governing board in 2023.
• Shiva Rajbhandari was elected to the Boise School District Board of Trustees in 2022 while still a senior in high school. He is an advocate for mental health services, a Green New Deal for public schools and better working conditions andsupport for staff.
• Danny Cage was elected to the Multnomah Education Service District Board of Directors in Oregon in 2023 at the age of 18 while still a senior in high school. He is an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, climate activism and his local teachers union.
• Nicholas Scotti was elected in 2021, at age 19, to the Nutley Board of Education in New Jersey. He is an advocate for students and teachers and for better school food and infrastructure.
• Hunter Holt was elected, at age 18, to the Marana Unified School District Governing Board in Arizona in 2020. Hunter is advocating for an open and transparent process to ensure that educators have the support they need for the district’s students.

Young people stepping up to run for office right now include Mikah Dyer, a high school senior running for the Peoria Unified School District Governing Board in Arizona. He is an advocate for making sure that students, teachers and support staff have the resources they need, and is pushing for transparency in the school district’s budget process.

Carly Bryant is running for a spot on the Bozeman Independent School District Board of Trustees in Montana. She is a high school senior running on a platform of reimagining how school districts can tackle the climate crisis and create an inclusive culture for all students, staff and parents. She’s also an advocate for the Green New Deal for public schools.

Related: OPINION: Why school boards can and must be leaders in tackling climate change

These students are inspirational because they share the experiences not of yesterday, but of today. They have turned those experiences into action by running for office and transforming the way we think about empowering students by being that change themselves.

They are just a few examples of young people stepping into their collective power to create change in school boards and in public school systems throughout America, while encouraging more students to do the same.

They are fighting for climate action, LGBTQ+ rights and ensuring that staff have the resources they need, along with reforming mental health and discipline policies and much more. Students deserve a seat on every school board in America.

In Littleton, I remain inspired by every student in my community and district. If it weren’t for them, and if it weren’t for Sara Sanchez, my special education teacher in high school, and my political mentor, Leezah Sun, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.

Markus Ceniceros is the youngest elected official in Arizona and a member of the Littleton Elementary School District Governing Board. He attends Estrella Mountain Community College.

This story about students and school boards was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post STUDENT VOICE: School boards are a critical piece of democracy. That’s why students must be on them appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

If you worry about your own screen time, just think about the young people in your life.

The amount of time they spend consuming media and scrolling through content might alarm you. Teens are glued to screens for more than eight hours a day, reports show. So much screen time could pose risks for adolescents — including exposure to toxic misinformation.

With millions of Americans voting in federal, state and local elections this year, misinformation poses grave challenges to our democratic processes.

Standards-based news organizations carefully fact-check information with an eye toward fairness and a dedication to accuracy. Yet much of what populates our social media feeds is user-generated, unvetted and of varying reliability.

Too often, it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction in the onslaught of information we face. Many students — our next generation of voters — have no idea how to tell the difference between what’s meant to inform them and what’s meant to entertain them, sell them something or even mislead them. Luckily, a growing number of states are tackling this problem by helping students become more media literate. More states must follow.

Related: One state is poised to teach media literacy starting in kindergarten

In 2023 alone, New Jersey and California passed laws requiring that students be taught media literacy skills. Those states join others, including Delaware, Illinois and Texas, that led the way for mandating such requirements.

Media literacy teaches students how to access and evaluate all types of communication. News literacy falls under the umbrella of media literacy, and is focused on helping students understand the importance of a free press in a democracy and on developing the ability to determine the credibility of news.

News literacy teaches students how to think, not what to think. It develops a healthy skepticism — not cynicism — about the news.

Students who learn news literacy skills, for example, are more likely to notice when a social media post does not present credible evidence, assessments show. Studies have shown that “prebunking” — preemptively teaching people the common tactics used to spread false and misleading information — can effectively teach people to resist it. At a time of historically low levels of trust in news organizations, news and media literacy builds appreciation of and demand for quality journalism, a cornerstone of our democracy, and prepares students to be informed participants in our civic life.

States have taken different approaches to helping students find credible information: In Illinois, students must receive at least one unit of news literacy instruction before graduation. New Jersey has gone even further, requiring students in every grade to learn “information literacy,” an umbrella term that includes the ability to navigate all forms of information.

Related: The in-school push to fight misinformation from the outside world

Legislation to require media literacy instruction is a powerful part of the solution to misinformation, but it won’t solve the problem alone. Doing so will also require help from social media and technology companies, media organizations, civic organizations and the philanthropic community.

We need to do away with the myth of the “digital native.” Just because young people have grown up with technology does not mean that they instinctively know how to navigate the challenges of our information landscape. A recent report showed that teens receive more than 200 alerts on their phones a day. It’s important that we teach young people how to recognize the different types and quality of information they’re bombarded with, or we will leave them vulnerable to information that is unreliable or even intentionally misleading.

Most Americans are concerned about misinformation. As we head into an election cycle with AI technologies becoming more widely available and social media companies scaling back moderation efforts, it’s more important than ever to make sure everyone knows where to turn for accurate information about where, how and when to vote. This is especially true for our students who are just becoming old enough to cast their ballots for the first time.

By ensuring that more people are news literate, we can build a stronger, more inclusive democracy.

In 2024, let’s expand this work in schools and at home.

Ebonee Otoo is senior vice president of educator engagement at the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that teaches people how to identify credible sources of news and information.

This story about teaching media literacy was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post OPINION: More states should require teaching kids how to read the news and spot what’s true and what’s not appeared first on The Hechinger Report.