Tag Archives: American education

Back to Democracy Basics, Part III

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  SEPT 22, 2026

“No republic can survive when its citizens lose faith in their own ability to govern themselves and instead view citizenship as merely consuming services provided by someone else.”
— Richard Hines, writing in The Fulcrum, July 4, 2026

There’s truth in that.

American citizens have lost faith in their ability to govern because it seems they no longer know how to govern or simply no longer have the will to try. It’s understandable on both counts.
Citizens today can’t make themselves heard or expect responses.

Why? Because of the exasperating din of personal rancor, partisan warfare, righteous intransigence that permeates most aspects of governance, and the intense competition for lawmakers’ attention, much of it unfair.

There are many logical reasons for how we got to where we are and many more lame excuses for it. There’s plenty of blame to go around, too. But I believe at the bottom of it all is our abandonment of the core values underlying democratic republicanism that I’m examining in this series of columns.

Civics education is one of those core values that should never be trifled with. But it has been. The deterioration of civics and history education is shameful. Continue reading →

Obama Can Reshape School Debate

BY GARY ANDRES

For the Weekly Standard

President Obama missed a host of opportunities to remedy Washington’s fever of polarization during the health care debate. Instead of forging a bipartisan coalition and ratcheting back the campaign-style rhetoric, he agreed to a one-party strategy and consistently demonized his opponents with over the top rhetoric.

Mr. Obama also falsely raised citizens’ expectations that one bill or a new government program could remedy all that ails us. Government is no wonder drug.  It cannot deliver all the life altering promises on the president’s wish list.

But American politics can also produce second chances. The president may have an opportunity to generate a more realistic kind of change when it comes to education reform. Yet it’s unclear if he has the conviction or the political fortitude to do so.
Continue reading →