A democracy is only as strong as the citizens who understand how it works. Florida has taken that idea to heart, investing in civic education from the earliest grades. This summer, in a Tallahassee event hall filled with middle schoolers, their families, and a nervous buzz of anticipation, I watched that investment pay off.
At the end of June, the Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC) at Florida State University hosted the Florida Statewide Finals of the National Civics Bee®, a competition for middle school students. Twelve middle schoolers from across the state had earned their place by writing an essay about a problem in their own community and connecting it to the nation’s founding principles. On stage, they answered round after round of rigorous civics questions about the three branches of government, the founding documents, and the ideas this country was built on. On a 20-question round, many students missed only one.
That level of knowledge is not the norm. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation survey found that more than 70% of Americans fail a basic civic literacy quiz. At the IGC, our own research found that fewer than half of the Floridians we surveyed could correctly answer five basic civics questions.
When citizens don’t understand how their government works or how their rights are protected, trust in institutions erodes and participation in elections and civic life fades. Watching a room full of 12-year-olds outscore most adults isn’t just charming; it is evidence that the trend can be reversed.
What has stayed with me most is what these students chose to talk about: human trafficking, substance abuse, public transportation, and the gap in lifesaving CPR for women, among other topics. They connected enduring democratic principles to the lives of their neighbors, and they were ready to walk into an elected official’s office and ask how to help. After more than 20 years in Florida local government before joining the IGC, it struck me: if every public servant brought the civic grounding these students already have, our communities would be better for it.
This is the deeper reason the mission matters. A self-governing republic depends on citizens who understand how it works, and that understanding must be taught to each new generation. Florida has treated that as a shared responsibility. When the Legislature created the IGC in 2023, it charged the institute with encouraging civic literacy statewide. That means developing educational tools and resources for students and the teachers who guide them. That mandate shapes everything we do.
Our research arm produces the public opinion polling that shows where civic knowledge stands; our programs then put that knowledge to work. Beyond the classroom, the IGC has built an interdisciplinary degree in civics and liberty studies and a speaker series that draws students to hear ideas across the spectrum. We also established Florida’s first-ever First Amendment Clinic at the FSU College of Law.
But some of our most important work reaches students even earlier. Behind every prepared student on that Civics Bee stage is usually an invested teacher. Each summer, we bring civics educators from across the state to FSU to learn how to teach the founding documents, from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution and other primary sources, in ways that bring dense, centuries-old texts to life. Two summers ago, 40 teachers came. This summer, 160 did – a fourfold increase. That is momentum.
Florida made a deliberate choice to take civic education seriously. This summer, in the faces of 12 remarkable students, I watched that choice pay off. It is a choice worth renewing, strengthening, and making again and again.
Lila Seagle is associate director of the Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC) at Florida State University. For more information on IGC, visit igc.fsu.edu.
