Deplorable:
Warning Iowa is suffering from a “crisis in civics literacy,” a representative from the National Association of Scholars on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reform public university general education requirements, establish autonomous civics schools on its university campuses, and ensure education accrediting bodies can’t block Iowa’s reform laws.
All three of those recommendations are covered among 14 study bills introduced two weeks ago in the Iowa House’s new higher education subcommittee.
“We offer these suggestions to the judgment of Iowa citizens and elected officials who will know best what policy solutions the state of Iowa should provide for the civic literacy crisis,” David Randall, director of research for the National Association of Scholars, told members of the higher ed committee on Wednesday.
“We are confident that Iowa can meet this challenge and remake their educational institutions so that they are school houses upon a hill, models for admiration and imitation throughout America.”
In his presentation, Randall said Iowa’s public universities have no general education requirement for American history and government — something Republican lawmakers have sought to rectify with House Study Bill 56, which mandates students at a public university or community college complete an American history and civil government course to graduate.
“And what universities label as civic education frequently is ‘civic engagement’ — in other words ‘action civics,’ which is vocational education in progressive activism,” he said. “The systematic radicalization of Iowa's public universities makes impossible a genuinely civic education.”
Among the University of Iowa’s gen ed requirements is one on “historical perspectives” and another on “values and culture.” Fulfilling the historical perspectives requirement are courses like American History to 1877 and American History 1877-Present.
Qualifying as “values and culture” courses are things like “Understanding American Cultures” and “Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies.”
The university this fall said it’s renaming its “diversity and inclusion” requirement to “understanding cultural perspectives” and renaming its “values and culture” requirement to be “values and society.”
But Randall called out that diversity requirement during his presentation.
“Diversity and inclusion is a euphemism for courses largely dedicated to inculcating the same discriminatory concepts that the Iowa Legislature already has sought to remove from the administrative structure of the state's public universities,” he said. “Iowa's public universities cannot provide real civic education so long as they require their students spend their tuition dollars on politicized courses.”
Pointing to UI professor emeritus and Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson, Randall said, “Iowa does not educate its students to understand or to follow in the footsteps of Marilynne Robinson.”
“Iowa civic education ought to make it possible for students to become new Robinsons, who can write eloquently and knowledgeably of their country and their state,” Randall said. “If you look at the general education requirements of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa you will see that Iowa's public universities are derelict in their duty.
“Iowa's universities do not care if they never educate another Marilynne Robinson.”
Randall is the second presenter to the higher ed committee this session from the National Association of Scholars — a conservative nonprofit aiming to reform higher education by upholding “reasoned scholarship” standards that include core subjects like Western civilization and American history.
Two weeks ago the committee heard from Neetu Arnold, a research fellow with the association, who also urged lawmakers to make big-picture changes across Iowa’s higher education landscape.
“The kind of changes that would signal a return to merit, excellence and intelligence in our higher education system,” Arnold said.
In Randall’s presentation Wednesday, he cited as evidence of the civics literacy crisis a 2024 survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni that revealed “widespread ignorance of basic facts” among the 3,000 American undergraduate students polled.
“Fewer than one-third of students knew when the Constitution was written; fewer than one-third of students knew that the legislative branch has the power to declare war; only one quarter of students knew that the 13th Amendment freed slaves,” he said.
Listing among the consequences is “an abandonment of a willingness to defend our country in case of peril.”
“A majority of the students surveyed said they would flee the country if the United States were invaded,” Randall said. “The terrible politicization of America's universities must contribute to these illiberal, unpatriotic sentiments.”
“Let me start with a quote from Ronald Reagan, ‘Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction’,” Holt said. “We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can hear it … is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.
“And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
www.thegazette.com
Warning Iowa is suffering from a “crisis in civics literacy,” a representative from the National Association of Scholars on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reform public university general education requirements, establish autonomous civics schools on its university campuses, and ensure education accrediting bodies can’t block Iowa’s reform laws.
All three of those recommendations are covered among 14 study bills introduced two weeks ago in the Iowa House’s new higher education subcommittee.
“We offer these suggestions to the judgment of Iowa citizens and elected officials who will know best what policy solutions the state of Iowa should provide for the civic literacy crisis,” David Randall, director of research for the National Association of Scholars, told members of the higher ed committee on Wednesday.
“We are confident that Iowa can meet this challenge and remake their educational institutions so that they are school houses upon a hill, models for admiration and imitation throughout America.”
In his presentation, Randall said Iowa’s public universities have no general education requirement for American history and government — something Republican lawmakers have sought to rectify with House Study Bill 56, which mandates students at a public university or community college complete an American history and civil government course to graduate.
“And what universities label as civic education frequently is ‘civic engagement’ — in other words ‘action civics,’ which is vocational education in progressive activism,” he said. “The systematic radicalization of Iowa's public universities makes impossible a genuinely civic education.”
Among the University of Iowa’s gen ed requirements is one on “historical perspectives” and another on “values and culture.” Fulfilling the historical perspectives requirement are courses like American History to 1877 and American History 1877-Present.
Qualifying as “values and culture” courses are things like “Understanding American Cultures” and “Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies.”
The university this fall said it’s renaming its “diversity and inclusion” requirement to “understanding cultural perspectives” and renaming its “values and culture” requirement to be “values and society.”
But Randall called out that diversity requirement during his presentation.
“Diversity and inclusion is a euphemism for courses largely dedicated to inculcating the same discriminatory concepts that the Iowa Legislature already has sought to remove from the administrative structure of the state's public universities,” he said. “Iowa's public universities cannot provide real civic education so long as they require their students spend their tuition dollars on politicized courses.”
Pointing to UI professor emeritus and Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson, Randall said, “Iowa does not educate its students to understand or to follow in the footsteps of Marilynne Robinson.”
“Iowa civic education ought to make it possible for students to become new Robinsons, who can write eloquently and knowledgeably of their country and their state,” Randall said. “If you look at the general education requirements of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa you will see that Iowa's public universities are derelict in their duty.
“Iowa's universities do not care if they never educate another Marilynne Robinson.”
‘Illiberal, unpatriotic sentiments’
Randall is the second presenter to the higher ed committee this session from the National Association of Scholars — a conservative nonprofit aiming to reform higher education by upholding “reasoned scholarship” standards that include core subjects like Western civilization and American history.
Two weeks ago the committee heard from Neetu Arnold, a research fellow with the association, who also urged lawmakers to make big-picture changes across Iowa’s higher education landscape.
“The kind of changes that would signal a return to merit, excellence and intelligence in our higher education system,” Arnold said.
In Randall’s presentation Wednesday, he cited as evidence of the civics literacy crisis a 2024 survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni that revealed “widespread ignorance of basic facts” among the 3,000 American undergraduate students polled.
“Fewer than one-third of students knew when the Constitution was written; fewer than one-third of students knew that the legislative branch has the power to declare war; only one quarter of students knew that the 13th Amendment freed slaves,” he said.
Listing among the consequences is “an abandonment of a willingness to defend our country in case of peril.”
“A majority of the students surveyed said they would flee the country if the United States were invaded,” Randall said. “The terrible politicization of America's universities must contribute to these illiberal, unpatriotic sentiments.”
“Let me start with a quote from Ronald Reagan, ‘Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction’,” Holt said. “We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can hear it … is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.
“And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Warning of ‘civics literacy’ crisis, adviser urges Iowa to ‘remake’ universities
Warning Iowa is suffering from a “crisis in civics literacy,” a representative from the National Association of Scholars on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reform public university general education requirements, establish autonomous civics schools on its university campuses, and ensure education...
www.thegazette.com
