Wilmington, DE – The Washington Post recently reported that higher education officials acknowledge that Americans are “less well educated” than past generations, but rather than ask for help in education they came to Congress asking that they fund their buildings on campus to be standardized as “green.” The National Civic Literacy Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) issued a 33-question civics test to 2,508 random Americans and couldn’t agree more that America’s education system needs reform.
The national study, Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on their History and Institutions found that most Americans from different educational backgrounds do not know basic civic information like; the three branches of government, the role of the Electoral College, and which part of the government has the power to declare war.
It’s astonishing that higher education officials are asking Congress for a stimulus package to bring campus buildings up to ‘green’ standards when their students’ civic knowledge is failing any standard! ISI’s national civic literacy study last year found that the universities approaching Congress about their campus buildings “going green” have failed basic civics; such as the University of California at Berkeley (56.2%), University of Michigan (51%), and the University of Virginia (65.2%).
Instead of looking at the current economic crisis as a way to justify a money-grab from an already over-extended federal government, it probably would be wiser for public universities to take a hard look at whether their existing curricula and professors are preparing their graduates adequately for the duties of informed citizenship, something that only comes from a firm command of America’s core history, key texts, and enduring political and economic institutions.
Americans overwhelmingly failed the test with an average score of 49%, but the higher education officials addressing Congress for a stimulus program deemed ‘green’ standard buildings on campuses to be of more importance than fixing the education system. That kind of reform would cost very little, and would be much more meaningful to parents and students, then a green building.
Dr. Richard Brake is the Director of University Stewardship at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and co-chairman of The National Civic Literacy Study. For more information or to arrange an interview, please call Hayley McConnell at Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, 703-739-5920 or hmcconnell@sbpublicaffairs.com.
