FRANKFORT, Ky. - It's hard to determine the extent of civic illiteracy in Kentucky, Secretary of State Trey Grayson told a legislative panel last week.
But based on anecdotes and national figures, it could use improvement, he said. So, Grayson and others have developed a wish list of ideas that could help boost Kentuckians' awareness about basic civics and the operation of government.
Among other things, Grayson has asked the General Assembly to name October as "Civic Literacy and Engagement" month. Theoretically, focusing more awareness on civics in the month before November - when major national elections take place - could muster additional attention and get more people to vote, Grayson said,
"The goal of this whole effort is to have a more engaged and more informed citizenry that not just votes, but that actually participates in the process," Grayson told the Senate Education Committee last week.
In October, Grayson hosted a statewide summit on civic literacy. The results of that summit were compiled in a 54-page report he presented to the Legislature last week.
Among other things, lawmakers should allocate more money for civic literacy programs, annual or biennial follow-ups to the summit and provide teachers with more civics training, the report found. The state should also encourage Kentucky colleges and universities to focus more on civic literacy issues, according to the report.
Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, told the committee a 1998 national survey of fourth, eighth and 12th grade students found only 25 percent were proficient in civics and government. Voting among 18-25 year olds has declined compared with the 1970s, and there has been a drop in political volunteerism, Westwood said.
There also seems to be a growing sense among youngsters that the First Amendment "goes too far," Westwood said. That sentiment shows a lack of knowledge about civics that is "very disturbing and dangerous," said Westwood, who co-sponsored the legislation that authorized the summit and report.
"We need to get back to a very basic focus of what civics education is doing in our schools and we need to make sure our students understand those freedoms, where they came from, how the government guarantees those freedoms and that we do in fact live in a republic," Westwood told the committee.
Rena Burden, 18, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, participated in the summit. Burden, a freshman political science major, said she thought the students who participated in the summit showed an interest in learning how they could become politically active and play a role in government, even though they can't vote.
While "there is an apathy that exists," among the youth, that dynamic is "soon changing," Burden said.
Still, there currently is not a way to gauge the exact state of civic literacy in Kentucky, Grayson told reporters. Kentucky does not have a statewide assessment for civics and government, Grayson said.
"There's a general sense that people are (civics) illiterate nationwide. We have no reason to think that Kentucky is any different than any other state in that regard," Grayson said. "We don't know whether it's any better or any worse. But regardless of the relative comparison, it's not good enough."