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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2020
Secretary of state to focus on civic education
Nonprofi t groups
working to fi ll gap
in Oregon, US
By JAKE THOMAS
Oregon Capital Bureau
As a social studies teacher
at Amity Middle School,
it falls on Jeff Geissler to
teach students the impor-
tance of voting, paying taxes
and how their government
works.
Now in his fourth year
teaching social studies,
Geissler recalls taking a
training offered by the Class-
room Law Project on civic
education. During a week-
long training, Geissler spent
long days learning about the
Greek roots of democracy,
the American Revolution,
the genesis of the Consti-
tution and debates over the
founding document.
He overcame his stu-
dents’ “so what?” reaction
by linking civics to confl icts
in social life, questions over
how rights are applied and
conversations they might
have with their family at
dinner.
When his students learned
about the number of adults
who don’t vote, “They were
aghast and disappointed in
the adults,” he recalled.
Geissler said that civics
education like this should be
in every classroom. But it’s
not. In recent decades, civ-
ics has fallen to the wayside
in classrooms in Oregon
and across the country. Cur-
rently, there is no require-
ment for students to study
civics in Oregon schools.
Research shows that stu-
dents who are taught civics
are more likely to vote and
be engaged in their com-
munities. Last year, lead-
ers of the College Board,
which administers the SAT
exam, said that understand-
ing the U.S. Constitution
was as important as com-
puter science.
At least 31 state legisla-
tures proposed 115 bills or
resolutions aimed at bolster-
ing civics in 2018, according
to the National Conference
of State Legislatures. But
legislative attempts in Ore-
gon to require students to
study civics to graduate have
failed in recent years.
For now, there are non-
profi ts working to fi ll in the
gaps.
“It is taught, but it is not
taught to all of our students,”
said Erin Esparza, executive
director of the Classroom
Law Project, a civic educa-
tion nonprofi t.
After being appointed
earlier this year to fi ll out
the term of the late Secretary
of State Dennis Richardson,
Bev Clarno has continued
and expanded civic educa-
tion initiatives launched by
her predecessor.
During her nearly 20
years serving in the Oregon
Legislature, Clarno recalled
getting letters from peo-
ple seeking help on federal
issues. Some were strug-
gling with a government
issue and didn’t know who
to turn to.
She remembered the civic
education she received at
Redmond High School.
“I think it’s something
that lasts all your life,” she
said.
However, both face chal-
lenges in reaching all parts
of the state.
‘We’ve got to make
good citizens’
Americans are becom-
ing increasingly unaware
of the basic functions of
government.
A 2016 survey by the
Annenberg Public Policy
Center found that only 26%
of Americans could name
all three branches of govern-
ment. Only 17% of Amer-
icans trust the government
according to a Pew Research
Center survey released in
2019.
The National Assess-
ment of Educational Prog-
ress’s most recent report
card released in 2015 found
that 77% of students scored
below profi cient in civics
and less than half of eighth
graders knew the purpose of
the Bill of Rights.
West Albany High School students who participated in the 73rd annual Oregon YMCA Youth & Government session in 2019 with Gov. Kate Brown.
“What’s going on in
today’s politics, we don’t
have people that understand
how their government is sup-
posed to function,” said state
Rep. Paul Evans, D-Mon-
mouth. “Now we don’t have
people who understand that
it’s their responsibility to
maintain a republic.”
Evans attributed the
decline in civic education
in Oregon classrooms to a
series of tax measures meant
to curb the increase in prop-
erty taxes as well as the
decline in timber revenue
around the late 1970s and
1908s. With less revenue, he
said schools had to get “back
to basics.”
Evans has unsuccessfully
introduced legislation three
times to require students
to study civics in order to
graduate, most recently in
2019. He said that the Ore-
gon Education Associa-
tion opposed the bill over
concerns of creating an
unfunded mandate.
He said it makes sense
that the state’s educational
system has given more sup-
port to reading, writing and
math as standardized test-
ing has become increas-
ingly common. But he said
schools should teach civ-
ics, which he said is just as
critical.
“We have got to move
away from just deciding
how we’re going to make
good workers for the 21st
century,” said Evans, who
won’t reintroduce the bill
for February’s short session.
“We’ve got to make good
citizens.”
‘Roles that they need to
take on as grownups’
Under Evans’ bill, school
districts could allow students
to participate in an existing
civics education program,
such as the YMCA Youth
in Government, to meet the
requirement.
While Oregon’s educa-
tional system has shifted,
these programs have con-
tinued to operate. YMCA
Youth in Government has
operated in Oregon since the
1940s where students partic-
ipate in a mock legislative
process where they research
and debate issues before
casting votes.
Marisa Fink, the pro-
gram’s state director, said
that YMCA Youth in Gov-
ernment is active in about
a dozen high schools in the
Salem and Portland areas.
She said it costs students
$200 to attend the three-day
event held in February in
Salem and that raising funds
to attend can be a barrier.
“We are really starting
to focus on how to expand
statewide in rural areas,”
said Fink.
The program will be
looking to foundations for
funding to get more students
in the program. But she said
some schools are just not that
interested in civic education.
Esparza said civics edu-
cation should teach skills
meant to help students work
collaboratively. In addition
to professional development
for teachers, the Classroom
Law Project also offers pro-
grams such as high school
mock trials or simulated
congressional hearings. It
also offers another program
where students identify a
community problem and
research a way to solve it.
“It requires them to try
on the roles that they need
to take on as grownups,” she
said. At the end of the pro-
gram, she said students are
amazed that an adult actu-
ally listened to them.
She pointed to the Ore-
gon Department of Educa-
tion’s most recent annual
report card, which shows
social sciences (includ-
ing civics) accounts for just
16% of course offerings in
schools. But she said that
there are other ways to inte-
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grate civics into the cur-
riculum. She mentioned a
fi fth grade teacher whose
students put Goldilocks on
trial.
Although the group’s
programs reach 1,300 teach-
ers and 103,000 students
each year, Esparza said her
group is looking into fund-
ing to reach schools that
serve communities of color
or rural areas.
Secretary of state’s
response
In May, Clarno appointed
Mary Beth Herkert, the
state’s longtime archivist, as
her offi ce’s full-time direc-
tor of civic education.
Herkert said previously
the job had been a part-time
responsibility assigned to a
member of the secretary’s
staff. She’s carried on the
work of Richardson who
brought the Kid Governor
program to Oregon in 2018.
In the program, fi fth grad-
ers identify a plan to solve
a community issue and runs
statewide for a one-year
term. Herkert said that over
60 schools participated this
year.
She said she’s planning
on starting more programs.
She traveled to New York
to visit a school that had
implemented a program
where students read about
historical events and then
make and defend decisions
about what they would have
done in that situation.
Herkert is also planning
to develop a program for
adults that could involve
classes or trivia night.
“If you asked the average
voter how the initiative or
referendum process works,
they probably don’t know
but we vote on them every
election,” she said.
Raaga Mandala, who
attends Beaverton’s Jacob
Wismer Elementary School,
will be sworn in as Oregon’s
next kid governor in Jan-
uary after she campaigned
on a platform of address-
ing homelessness. She said
that the program was the
fi rst time she was taught
about government. She also
learned another lesson.
“I learned there are a lot
of problems in our com-
munity that kids or anyone
could help make a dent in,”
she said.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group,
Pamplin Media Group and
Salem Reporter.
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