(INDIANAPOLIS) — Today’s Indiana fourth-graders would have to take a civics course in middle
school, under a bill overwhelmingly approved by the Indiana House.
Cicero Representative and former Hamilton Heights Superintendent Tony J. Cook (R) says the bill
plugs an important hole in Indiana’s curriculum. His bill calls for the State Board of Education to
issue standards by next summer. Schools would decide whether to put civics class in sixth,
seventh or eighth grade.
Representatives from both parties say they regularly see firsthand a lack of understanding of how
government works. Lafayette Representative Sheila Klinker (D) says voters often ask her how
things are in Washington. And House Majority Leader Matt Lehman (R-Berne) says when he visits
classrooms to explain how a bill becomes law, parents often come up to him afterward to say how
much of it was new to them.
Indiana already requires a one-semester government course in high school. A pair of Indiana Bar
Foundation task forces over the last two years recommended expanding that requirement to a full
year, and adding elementary and middle school courses as well. The panel, chaired by Lieutenant
Governor Suzanne Crouch, says it’s not enough to touch on government basics as part of a
broader social studies curriculum. It says there needs to be a dedicated focus on the subject.
The expanded curriculum was one of 14 proposals the task force recommended implementing over
the next five years, along with ideas such as requiring students to complete two civic projects,
and requiring aspiring teachers to take a political science course.
The Bar Foundation’s Civic Health Index in 2019 concluded students needed a better
understanding not just of the mechanics of government, but media literacy and the ways to get
involved in one’s community. The report pointed to reduced rates of community involvement, and
declining voter registration and turnout.
Last year’s election turnout rebounded to 65%, Indiana’s highest in 40 years. But the
previous election in 2016 saw Indiana’s lowest presidential-year turnout in 40 years, despite
then-Governor Mike Pence’s presence on the ballot as Donald Trump’s running mate. And off-year
turnout bottomed out at 35% in 2014 before bouncing back to a 32-year high in 2018.
The Senate will take up the bill next month.
