Many of America’s elite universities virtually ignore the holiday, violating federal law
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CounterCurrent
Constitution Day on Campus—
A Thing of the Past?
Many of America’s elite universities virtually ignore the holiday, violating federal law
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Civics Education; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Article - How Colleges Forget the Constitution by Christopher Kendall ([link removed])
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Happy belated Constitution Day! Last Friday marked 234 years since the United States Constitution was signed, one of the most important man-made documents in all of human history and surely the most formative in American history. We Americans ought to be grateful for the rights enumerated in the Constitution, rights which many countries’ citizens simply do not enjoy. But this day should also remind us that, perhaps more than ever, these rights are under attack by ideologies largely spawned within the halls of academia. But you already know this, I’m sure.
What you may not know is that, according to federal law, all colleges and universities receiving federal funds must host an educational program on Constitution Day each year. The law ([link removed]) was proposed by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) as part of the omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The text reads as follows:
Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.
Simple enough, right? But let’s not be naive. As we know from many other federal education laws ([link removed]) , simply having legislation on the books doesn’t accomplish much. Many schools simply ignore it. So to commemorate this year’s Constitution Day, we ask: How many schools actually follow this law?
To answer this question, National Association of Scholars Director of Development Christopher Kendall conducted a survey ([link removed]) of thirty colleges and universities highly ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Sadly, he found ([link removed]) that “barely half have programs listed for 2021. Of those, only a dozen could be called ‘educational’ in any sense.” Some heavy hitters had no scheduled events whatsoever: Harvard, MIT, UPenn, Brown, and Duke, to name a few. Further, these elite institutions are trend-setters—this does not portend well for the future of civics education on our campuses.
This alarming lack of Constitution Day education (or worse, the overtly partisan events ([link removed]) that use the day as a pretense) is only compounded by the civics miseducation ([link removed]) currently permeating K-12 education. Some states, such as Texas ([link removed]) , are making serious efforts to fight back, but most are content with a dry, lukewarm civics education at best, and an all-out progressive propaganda campaign at worst.
Kendall’s Constitution Day research is a sobering reminder that, when you assess the average American child’s civics education from kindergarten through college, there’s not much good to report. At this point, we must seriously ask: Does today’s college student even know what the Constitution is? If they do, can they describe it in any level of detail? Can they list even part of the Bill of Rights? Or do they think the Constitution is a monument to oppression and white supremacy? As Kendall writes,
American education once emphasized the positive elements of our nation’s heroes, places, and ideas. This emphasis has faded in recent years, being replaced by a pedagogy that teaches that American values are outdated and American institutions are problematic. What would it look like if we taught American history from a constructive perspective again, one aimed at building support for our national values, institutions, and history?
Change may look like alternative educational material that will help fill the gaps left by our K-12 schools and colleges, such as the NAS’s own Celebrating America webinar series ([link removed]) and Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum ([link removed]) . Another way forward would require that higher education institutions actually abide by federal law and provide their students with a bare minimum education on America’s most important founding document. But maybe their noncompliance with the law is intentional. After all, it’s much easier to deprive students of rights they don’t even know they have.
Until next week.
David Acevedo
Communications & Research Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed])
For more on the Constitution and American civics education:
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September 20, 2021
** The Meaning of Constitution Day ([link removed])
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The 1776 Commission
The story of America is the story of a proud people with a boundless desire to leave for their posterity a more just and free society. This is the inheritance of all Americans.
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September 16, 2021
** Civics Education in Texas: A Progress Report ([link removed])
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Karole Fedrick
HB 3979 and HB 4509 have already become state law, and SB 3 is on the way with further changes. Will this legislation successfully reform Texas civics education?
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September 15, 2021
** Colleges and Constitution Day ([link removed])
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NAS
In 2004, Congress passed into law a requirement that all educational institutions that receive federal funding commemorate Constitution Day. Well ... do they?
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April 29, 2021
** 1787: The Constitutional Convention and Political Participation in the Early Republic ([link removed])
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NAS
Watch as professors Eric Nelson, James Stoner, Jack Rakove, and Barry Shain discuss the political thought of the Constitutional Convention.
** About the NAS
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The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.
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