Generation Z’s civic knowledge doesn’t make the grade, according to a survey released in 2024 by the nonpartisan Institute for Citizens and Scholars.

Faced with four standard civics questions about government institutions and the Bill of Rights, 40 percent of respondents, ages 18–24, got only one right. 

For the last five years, the Political Theory Institute (PTI) at the School of Public Affairs has helped high school students better understand democracy’s mechanics and wrestle with its imperfections. It’s done it by teaching their teachers.

Now, a three-year, $1.75 million grant awarded to AU in October from the Department of Education will allow PTI—led by SPA professors Alan Levine and Thomas Merrill—to amplify that work, reaching more teachers nationwide—and thus exponentially more students.

“The ultimate goal is to send some ripples out into the world and to create better citizens,” Levine says. 

The grant will fund three summers of on-campus workshops for 65 high school teachers and 45 students and a third-summer conference for universities with similar civics initiatives. It will also establish a certificate program in American political thought and literature and support programming for AU’s new 250+ at American initiative.

AU was among 85 institutions, including more than 50 universities, that received $153 million in funding for American history and civics seminars. Priority was given to colleges with independent civics centers—of which AU is now one.

In June, the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition moved to AU as part of the new Democracy Innovation Lab at the Sine Institute. 

Formed in 2021, CLDE—which aims to provide comprehensive civic democracy learning for all college students—had been searching for a permanent home. It found one in AU when Jon Alger was named president in July 2024 and made civic education and engagement an institutional priority.

“I’ve known Jon Alger for years to be one of the most civic-minded presidents in the country—one who understood without explanation what it was that we were trying to advance,” says Carol Schneider, interim director of CLDE.

Schneider, president emerita of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, where Alger currently serves as board chair, says the grant will enable CLDE to connect “civic enterprises” across campus “that reinforce each other and contribute to the revitalization of Americans’ civic and democracy learning.” 

But the grant is more about the acquisition of knowledge, Merrill says. It will help students build the muscle of active, thoughtful citizenship—including learning to navigate conflict constructively.

“We’re living through a crisis of trust in the United States in which we find it very difficult to talk to people that we disagree with,” he says. “The texts of the American political tradition provide great materials for practicing disagreement. After all, American political thought doesn’t speak with a single voice. It’s constituted by enduring disagreements that continue to shape our politics today.”

Merrill, director of SPA’s Lincoln Scholars program, says the US has been underinvesting in social studies and civics in elementary and secondary education for decades. The Atlantic reports that for every nickel per student spent on civics, the country allocates $50 for STEM education. 

While the nonpartisan CivxNow Coalition reports that 36 states and the District of Columbia mandate at least one semester-long government or civics course to meet social studies high school graduation requirements, curricula vary dramatically.

One of the strengths of PTI’s program is that it immerses teachers in primary texts, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and works by Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Martin Luther King Jr. Some of the teachers—a mix of seasoned veterans and fresh college graduates—have never engaged with the texts. 

Getting them comfortable is the immediate goal, Merrill says. 

“We want to create a space where teachers can think in an intentional way about using these texts to help their students develop into citizens who can work through disagreements thoughtfully.”