I am speaking today at “Civics Education: Why it Matters to Democracy, Society and You,” an event sponsored by the Harvard Law School and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. The far more prominent speakers include Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice David Souter, Judge Kenneth Starr, Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, Prof. Larry Tribe, MacArthur Foundation President Robert Gallucci, McCormick Foundation President David Hiller, and many more.

It is a show of strength for civics. I hope it leads to action, or at least public notice. My greatest fear: everyone will assume that kids today don’t know any civics, so we should require and test that subject. Actually, most states already require a civics class, students are required to learn perennial facts about the US political system and are tested on that information, and hence, if you ask a random national sample of 12th graders the decision in Marbury v. Madison, 69% can tell you correctly (without studying or prepping).*

Prompted by anecdotal information about what people don’t know, regular panics about poor civic knowledge lead to prescriptions that are far too modest or even trivial, such as making students pass the citizenship test that is required for naturalization. Students already learn a lot more than that. Our standards should be much higher. Students should, for example, learn to analyze public policies and deliberate and act on current problems.

I’m on the agenda relatively early and hope to make that point forcefully.

*From the 2010 federal NAEP Civics Assessment.