Former California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has this today in the Sacramento Bee, “Why civic education in schools is more important than ever.” She writes, “The second week of March is known as Civic Learning Week, an effort to promote the critical importance of understanding our governing system.” And, she says, “The need is urgent.”
A significant number of Americans lack basic knowledge of the nation’s system of government, which the former Chief Justice contends is “troubling because democracy is a use it or lose it proposition.”
Civics is a long-time concern for Cantil-Sakauye. (See here and links there.) As it is for current Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero. (See, e.g., here and here.)
Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom’s “Civic Learning Week” proclamation says, “Democracy is not self-sustaining—it needs constant upkeep and the faith of its people.”
