Nearly two dozen civic education groups, with the encouragement of the Judicial Conference Judicial Branch Committee, have passed a resolution calling for civic education to be established as a high priority for all schools.

     Last summer, representatives of 22 national civic education groups met in Washington to explore ways to make civic education a high priority in schools and communities. The meeting was convened by the Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch, which had formed a Subcommittee on Civic Education, chaired by Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. (E.D. Cal.).

Damrell’s objective as subcommittee chair has been to involve interested judges as resource persons available to educators and leaders concerned with social studies, civics, law-related education, and American history.

Participants at the meeting recognized that a high level of civic disengagement, especially among the young, demands an invigorated commitment to education for active and effective citizenship, and that a concerted national effort is required to inform public opinion about the value of renewing the promise of American democracy and the rule of law through civic education.

Further, public and academic action is needed, and the experience, expertise and leadership of civic education organizations is central to fostering the civic mission of education. In the months following the meeting, participants formulated and endorsed a formal resolution that "civic education be established as a high priority for all educational institutions as vital to nurturing the democratic impulse and the civic participation of young Americans."