Goldwater Makes the Case for Restoring Civics Education at Texas Forum

Americans cannot defend a system of government they do not understand. Restoring civic education means teaching the next generation not only how our institutions work, but why our founding principles still matter and how previous generations fought to secure the freedom we enjoy today.

That challenge brought the Goldwater Institute and the Texas Public Policy Foundation together in Austin recently for “Restoring Civics Education in America’s Classrooms.” Held in partnership with the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, the discussion featured Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur, University of Texas at Austin School of Civic Leadership Professor Andrew Lang, and TPPF Higher Education Policy Director Tom Lindsay.

Parents, educators, and students recognize that something has gone wrong with civic education. Too many students leave school without understanding what freedom means or how America’s system of government protects it. Recognizing that failure is only a start. Schools must teach the principles and history that explain what it means to be American and why the American experiment is worth preserving.

Sandefur emphasized that the American Revolution and the Civil War are essential to that understanding. The struggle for American liberty is a dramatic story of people asserting their rights, confronting injustice, and working to make the nation live up to its founding promises. Americans have done heroic things to secure and extend that freedom, and we owe the next generation an education that teaches those achievements. Teaching that history honestly means confronting slavery and other failures to live up to our ideals while honoring the courage and principles that made it possible to overcome them.

Preserving liberty also requires understanding the limits of government. Sandefur argued that when government controls more of people’s lives, elections carry higher stakes and political disagreements become harder to contain. Limited government leaves people more room to live alongside neighbors whose opinions they do not share. Civic education should help students understand how individual freedom allows people to disagree without threatening one another’s way of life.

University of Texas Professor Andrew Lang noted that those principles belong to every American. He pointed to Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Both viewed the founding documents as instruments of liberty. The Declaration of Independence’s promise of equal rights gave Americans a standard by which to judge their government and demand that it honors those rights. Lang explained that one goal of the new civic center movement is to help students understand that they have both a claim on that inheritance and a responsibility to sustain it.

That work begins with shared civic knowledge, TPPF’s Tom Lindsay explained. Americans cannot defend principles they do not understand, and teachers need a firm grounding in American history and government to teach those principles effectively. Restoring civic literacy requires educators who know the founding documents, understand the principles behind them, and can explain why they matter.

Lindsay pointed to the General Education Act, model legislation that would restore a common foundation in American history, government, and Western civilization in Texas. The proposal would establish an independent School of General Education with authority to hire qualified professors and oversee the courses entrusted to it, without other departments blocking its faculty appointments. Its purpose is to give students the knowledge and intellectual freedom they need to examine competing ideas, reach their own conclusions, and participate in self-government.

All three speakers agreed that higher education, especially at public universities, has a responsibility that goes beyond preparing students for a bigger paycheck. These institutions should prepare citizens to know their rights, understand the limits of government power, and sustain a free society long into the future. That’s the real return on investment that should come with a college education.