Remarks made at the Dover School Board Meeting, 12/13/21:
How well we, as citizens, know and understand the Constitution and how our system of government works, depends largely upon what our students are taught in our public schools.
A 2019 survey of 41,000 adults revealed some sobering facts. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that almost 75% of those surveyed could not identify the original 13 colonies; less than 25% knew why the Revolutionary War was fought, and only 15% could say what year the Constitution was written. Only 25% of this sample knew there are 27 amendments to our Constitution, and this was a multiple choice question! And 25% didn’t know that freedom of speech is guaranteed under the first amendment.
Something clearly needs to change. In planning curriculum for our students, there are numerous opportunities to bring these facts alive and develop a clearer understanding of the Constitution and the way our three branches of government work.
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An understanding of our State Government is also crucial. Here in New Hampshire, homeowners need to be able to recognize, for example, what our Republican-controlled legislative branch did to give them help with their property taxes.
Tax bills will soon arrive and taxpayers will have a one-time reprieve of many dollars due to our legislators allocating $100,000,000 for this purpose to help people recover from the COVID-19 lockdowns.
This was done by the state legislators, not federal or local governments. Not a single Democrat voted in favor of this reprieve for property taxes. This is a current real-time example for teachers to use to discuss how government works, the impact of budgetary decisions, and how they affect all our citizens.
We know teachers face challenges every day and are pulled in many directions as they plan their lessons. The future of our country literally rests in their hands. They are educating our future leaders as well as our future citizenry in being informed of the internal workings of our government and how they, and their decisions, will affect each of us.
Indeed, the onus of responsibility falls upon our teachers. I applaud all those who take this responsibility seriously. Preserving our Constitutional freedoms will depend on it.
