A bill before the Kentucky House aims to provide the state’s youth with a better civic education.
House Bill 535, sponsored by Republican Rep. Robert Duvall of Bowling Green, would mandate a half-credit civics course at Kentucky’s public high schools.
The proposal said the course’s topics would include – but not be limited to – an overview of American history; the role of the different levels of government; key texts, including the Kentucky and U.S. constitutions; rights and responsibilities of citizenship; political parties and interest groups; campaigns and elections; domestic and foreign policies; comparative systems; and international relations, among others.
The Kentucky Board of Education would establish the academic standards for the course.
The bill follows Kentucky earning a C-rating in a Civic Health Assessment (CHA) study conducted by the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office. The assessment examined Kentuckians’ direct participation in their civic responsibilities, as well as social civics factors and political polarization at play in the state.
The study found that, “while Kentuckians are more knowledgeable than the average American,” only five out of 10 Kentuckians could name all three branches of government, just 44% of Kentuckians could name a lawmaker that represents them and that more Kentuckians could name the governor than the president.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said statistics like those underscore the need for the state to invest in civic education.
“We’re raising a generation of kids who aren’t being exposed to civic education,” he said. “The original purpose for public education in Kentucky wasn’t job training or pre-college preparation, it was to train citizens for self-government.”
The study also found that Kentucky is one of “only a handful of states” that doesn’t produce a blue book or a voting guide for its residents – something 42 states do. It also indicated that the Commonwealth was one of the few states without a formal civic education requirement. According to the Institute for Citizens & Scholars – a nonprofit that strives to strengthen civic education through studying and investing in civic education – 13 states didn’t have formal civic education requirements in 2023.
Kentucky’s students are currently required to take three years of social studies classes in high school and to pass a 100-question civics test with at least a 60% to graduate.
Chris Kerrick teaches civics and government courses at Marshall County High School in far western Kentucky, including some equivalent to a college level. He said that his curriculum already includes some of the topics specified in the bill, but that others – like the Kentucky Constitution – are important for students to learn.
“I think they’re really important to understanding how government works, why it works, the way it does [and] the students' responsibilities and rights and getting involved,” Kerrick said. “I know our constitutional rights are important, and I stress that each and every day in class. Getting them to remember their rights, and specifically where they come from and what they mean.”
In Adams’ CHA Executive Summary, he recommends a fourth year of civic education, but he said the half-credit class is a “good first step.” He also said he hopes the bill can go a long way toward improving Kentucky’s civic health and teaching the state’s students soft skills, like having respectful debates.
“We want to raise a generation of informed citizens,” said Adams. “I think if we teach these soft skills, it’s not just good to ensure people are voters or good citizens, it helps them be good workers, helps them be good neighbors and helps them to be good family members.”
HB 535 was introduced earlier this month and is currently before the House Education Committee.
