American Civics Renewal Act

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, civics education has experienced a surge of legislation and funding. 44 states have introduced legislation concerning the subject in 2026, and the Department of Education announced over $150 million in grants in 2025. However, this push for better education has often been centered around a conservative view of the country. The Education Department’s America 250 Civics Coalition, which will plan programming for the celebrations this year, is comprised of over 40 right-leaning organizations. The Democratic senator Andy Kim has introduced a bill that advances a more bipartisan or nonpartisan approach. The bill, the American Civics Renewal Act, was read twice in the Senate and is currently being referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions as of March 2026. The act, if passed, would be a step towards a more collaborative and effective learning environment for students across the nation.

The American Civics Renewal Act lays out a simple agenda in just a handful of pages. It would authorize $2 million to create a commission of eight members that would be chosen by a mix of Republicans and Democrats. The commission would evaluate practices surrounding student education and teacher training, and then create a proposed curriculum plan for students of all ages. This plan would be due for completion within two years of the commission’s first meeting, at which time the commission would be disbanded. The curriculum would be provided to schools online as a completely optional resource (“American Civics Renewal Act”).

An important aspect of Kim’s bill is an educational direction often referred to as “action civics.” The bill calls for the curriculum to demonstrate “the importance of students developing civic-minded engagement” and include “examples of how lessons can be taught beyond traditional classroom instruction.” Some research has found that action civics, where students advocate for policy changes in their local government, boosted civic knowledge and academic performance (Lehrer-Small). 

However, this movement has faced pushback from certain conservative groups. In Texas, some types of student communication with elected officials were banned in 2021, leading to the dissolution of many action civics projects. Conservatives such as Stanley Kurtz have argued that these projects are nearly always leftist. Kurtz contends that more abstract classroom instruction and discussion is needed to understand issues before engaging with them. He argues that the group nature of activism projects discourages individualism in favor of group decision-making, and that this decision-making is inevitably influenced too greatly by the teacher. He advocates for learning through student debates, which examine both sides of an issue, and studying speeches by American figures such as Daniel Webster (Kurtz).

Yet according to The 74 Million—a nonprofit news organization that covers education—nearly all action civic concerned local issues such as “bullying, youth vaping, movie nights in the park or bringing back student newspapers,” along with some local-level issues that leaned liberal, such as gun control (Lehrer-Small). This contests Kurtz’s claim that action civics projects are nearly always leftist. Using a balanced approach to civics education that included studying political concepts, debating issues, and advocating for local change, would provide a strong educational process without becoming overly political.

Senator Andy Kim argues that action civics is “often the type of education that sticks with people and lingers the most” (Schwartz). His bill’s emphasis on collaboration between Republicans and Democrats, not to mention the National Archives and the Smithsonian, may be able to find solutions that are palatable to both sides of the political spectrum. 

Even without pushing for action civics, the American Civics Renewal Act would still be a landmark policy, as it would create a national curriculum model where few currently exist. Such programs have been attempted in the past and have become bogged down with controversy. In the 1990s, there was significant debate surrounding curriculum standards, such as “whole language” reading approaches versus more technical ones (Loveless). Many of these debates were lost in the movement towards STEM-focused education. However, some 90s-era disagreements continue to exist, including how much to emphasize America’s wrongs against women and various racial groups.

In the 2010s, the Common Core movement also faced difficulties. In 2014, Tom Loveless attributed some of the backlash to the following cause: educators would justify their own controversial curriculum choices, such as assigning politically-charged readings, by saying that they were “Common Core aligned,” thus driving parents to blame the Common Core for any unpopular teaching decisions (Loveless).

Despite these challenges, Kim is hopeful that his bill will find a place. He cites findings of low civic literacy as motivation to work together to solve the problem in schools. Kim believes that the surge of national interest approaching America 250 can generate the bipartisan support to pass his bill and invest more funds in civic education in general, even without presidential approval. His act is the first step in creating a more productive, bipartisan conversation about how to solve the problems in education that our country faces.

Works Cited

“American Civics Renewal Act.” Congress.gov, 119th Congress, 11 Mar. 2026, https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4057/text

Kurtz, Stanley. “Action Civics Replaces Citizenship with Partisanship.” The American Mind, 26 Jan. 2021, https://americanmind.org/memo/action-civics-replaces-citizenship-with-partisanship/

Lehrer-Small, Asher. “Texas Guts ‘Woke Civics.’ Now Kids Can’t Engage in a Key Democratic Process.” The Guardian, 1 May 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/01/texas-civics-students-democratic-participation

Loveless, Tom. “The Curriculum Wars.” Hoover Institution, 21 Mar. 2014, https://www.hoover.org/research/curriculum-wars

Schwartz, Sarah. “A New Bill Calls for a Model Civics Curriculum at a Polarized Moment.” Education Week, 18 Mar. 2026, https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/a-new-bill-calls-for-a-model-civics-curriculum-at-a-polarized-moment/2026/03

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