Civics education, long a source of tense political debates about the content of the curriculum, has become even more of a minefield for teachers and schools in recent months.
Through an executive order, President Donald Trump is trying to end what he sees as “radical indoctrination” and promote “patriotic” education, defined in part as a celebration of America’s “greatness.”
Texas and Oklahoma have recently seen fierce debate over proposals to include Bible stories in social studies lessons.
National surveys have found that many teachers say they try to avoid discussing issues that could be seen as controversial in the classroom—a trend accelerated by state legislation over the past few years banning teaching on “divisive” topics.
In the face of those trends stands a surprising third phenomenon: A newfound pressure for teachers to do more instruction on civics, not less. In the current legislative session, lawmakers in at least 44 states have introduced measures related to civics education this session, according to a tracker maintained by CivxNow, the advocacy arm of iCivics, an organization that aims to advance civic learning.
And as for passed legislation, even an increasingly tense political climate and a widening partisan divide hasn’t slowed things down. Since 2021, 24 states have passed legislation that would add civics course requirements, devote additional funding to the subject, or strengthen professional learning for teachers, among other priorities, according to CivxNow.
On both sides of the aisle, politicians frame these bills as a way to boost students’ knowledge of how American institutions function—which surveys have long shown is flagging—and how they can participate in the democratic process. Some suggest that it’s an avenue to lessen polarization.
“The more people are educated, the less frustrated they are with government,” said Representative Amanda Nedweski, a Republican in Wisconsin, who introduced a bill to mandate civics instruction in high schools in the state, in an interview.
But longstanding ideological debates about the aims of civic education—coupled with new challenges in the classroom—raise questions about whether mandates for more instructional time and resources can meet lofty goals of healing partisan divides and restoring trust in the political process.
As Trump and his administration test the boundaries of executive power, teachers have to decide whether—and how—to address those developments in their discussion of the three branches of government. At the same time, surveys show that young people’s belief in the efficacy of government is at all-time lows.
“I do see this as a challenge for the civics education space writ large,” said Scott Warren, a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and the co-founder of the national civics organization Generation Citizen. “People, especially young people, and this is very much across the board, don’t trust institutions. How can civics education acknowledge that while teaching about those institutions?”
“I don’t know how much that’s being addressed by either faction of the civics field right now,” he said.
Knowledge vs. skills debate continues
Civics instruction can be divided into two broad categories: knowledge—understanding the legislative process, for example, or knowing the rights enshrined in the First Amendment—and skills, helping students develop the disposition and ability to engage in civic life themselves.
There’s ongoing disagreement about how to prioritize these goals: Should students leave with a working knowledge of the Constitution, or a sense of responsibility to advocate for issues in their own communities? A deeply felt sense of patriotism, or a critical eye to the way institutions fail some Americans? Or all of the above, but in what proportions?
Most teacher professional organizations and civics groups argue that students need both knowledge and skills, and U.S. adults across both parties say that a wide range of civics activties—from learning about reasons to vote to writing letters to the editor—are important for students to engage in at school. Even so, most states that have stand-alone civics tests have written exams, rather than project-based or applied assessments.
Some lessons on civic engagement have drawn criticism from Republicans, who argue that encouraging students to create solutions to local problems and then write to their legislators or engage in peaceful protest allows politics to encroach too far into the classroom. The knowledge vs. skills debate has historically aligned roughly with partisan politics, with Republicans favoring the former and Democrats the latter.
“There is this sense of civics education meaning different things to different people, and I think we should interrogate that,” said Warren.
Of the 181 bills that iCivics has tracked this session, some take a both/and approach. Utah, for example, passed a law upping the high school civics course requirement from a semester to a full year—a proposal that saw bipartisan support and required courses to prioritize close reading of founding documents but also devote time to civic engagement.
Still, it’s been hard this session for many lawmakers to secure bipartisan support on individual measures, said Shawn Healy, the chief policy and advocacy officer at iCivics. “Legislators aren’t talking to each other,” he said.
It’s the role of citizens and advocates to bridge that gap, he added.
In Connecticut, the education committee introduced a bill to establish a high school civics seal affixed to the diplomas of students who excel in the subject—an option that seven states currently offer. One of the criteria for achieving the seal is participation in a civic engagement project, such as community service or involvement in student government.
Participation is a crucial piece of civic learning, said Representative Kevin Brown, a Democrat, who is co-vice chair of the education committee.
“Just trying to teach things by rote memorization, that doesn’t work anymore. You have to get young people actively engaged, hands-on learning, participatory learning, otherwise it’s not going to stick,” he said.
“To me, that’s not something that is partisan,” Brown continued. Still, he said, other legislators have approached him with concerns that teachers in the classroom were going to approach civic engagement with a left-wing agenda, encouraging students to support progressive social causes.
When government doesn’t work ‘the way that it’s taught in the books’
Most history and civics teachers explicitly avoid taking sides in partisan politics in front of their students, national surveys show. Advice for educators on how to do this often directs teachers to focus on process—explaining how the government works, grounding the conversation in the founding documents.
But even having those conversations could seem fraught for teachers now. Process is at the very center of current events, as legal scholars debate whether Trump has flouted constitutional law in authorizing mass terminations at federal agencies and resisting a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported man, among other actions.
Some legislators say it shouldn’t make a difference to how teachers conduct civics classes.
“That’s a great discussion to have with the students—how does something work. Does this pass muster with the Supreme Court?” said Assemblywoman Aura Dunn, a Republican in New Jersey, who introduced legislation this session to mandate an 11th grade civics course for graduation.
Over the past few months, civics education organizations have convened webinars and events aimed at helping teachers plan lessons on issues in the news—the limits of presidential executive orders, for example, or the future of birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment guarantee that the Trump administration wants to challenge.
“That’s how I think you approach this; it’s an inquiry,” said Healy. “Can he do that? Those are enduring questions. But they happen to be in front of us every day now.”
Offering targeted support to help teachers tackle tough civics conversations is an important companion to civic education legislation, said Joe Dwyer, the president of the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies, and the supervisor of global studies in the Nutley public schools in New Jersey.
In 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a law requiring a middle school civics course. As the requirement went into effect, the New Jersey Center for Civic Education, a nonprofit affiliated with Rutgers University, rolled out sessions to help teachers navigate conversations on controversial issues.
“That kind of support makes such a difference in the confidence level of teachers—how can I work through those civic competencies that I want students to have?” Dwyer said.
Still, the current political environment has left some teachers—even those with deep civic knowledge—searching for answers. Brown, the Democrat in the Connecticut House of Representatives, knows this intimately—he’s also a current high school social studies teacher.
He’s always taught his students that government doesn’t always work “the way that it’s taught in the books,” he said.
“I have a lot of questions from students,” Brown said, of this year’s classes. “And my answers are sometimes, ‘I don’t know.’”
