Two weeks ago, voters across Vermont sent some clear messages to elected officials.
Mostly, it came in the form of rejecting school budgets, but a few municipal budgets also failed at the polls. In addition, some elections will send communities and school districts on different courses.
That is what makes the democratic process so great.
What is important now is that voters pay attention to the “what’s next?” In communities and school districts where budgets were voted down, it will be important to be paying attention to what the revised proposed budgets will look like. The window for the process will be a short one, in order to get warnings posted, ballots printed and to beat the June 30 end of the fiscal year.
This year will be a crash course in civics. While politics — and the lead-up to elections — can induce indigestion and anxiety at times, that, too, is part of the process. It comes down to having all the information you need before you head to the polls.
Town Meeting Day on March 5 was the first opportunity in 2024. (It doubled as the presidential primary for Vermont.) In a matter of weeks, many communities will be heading back to the polls to have their say on the next round of budgets. Because this is an election year for statewide office holders, our representative to the House of Representatives, and lawmakers, there will be a statewide primary in early August. Once that slate of candidates is set, we press on to a November General Election, when we will also be choosing the President of the United States.
Choosing the president is its own journey in civics. Invariably, as has been the case in the last several elections, we are likely to see challenges, recounts, intervention, and even obligations of the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. House of Representatives.
That is the reason civics is so important. It is about understanding the process as set out constitutionally.
Consider that the 12th Amendment to the Constitution requires that presidential and vice presidential candidates gain “a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed” in order to win election. What would happen if no candidate won a majority (270) of electoral votes? The 12th Amendment provides that the U.S. House of Representatives would elect the president, and the U.S. Senate would elect the vice president, in a procedure known as “contingent election.” It has been implemented twice in the nation’s history under the 12th Amendment: first, to elect the president in 1825, and second, the vice president in 1837.
Civics plays a crucial role in our American education. Or it should.
That is why we are tipping our hat to Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, who led a celebration of Civic Learning Week, March 11-15.
Copeland Hanzas is joining a nationwide effort that brings together students, educators, policymakers, and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight and promote the movement for civic education in communities nationwide.
In a news release on the civics push here in Vermont, she notes, “While civic engagement is so much more than voting, the focus on this year’s presidential primaries and election provides an unparalleled opportunity to shine a light on the importance of civic education and how it can be a unifying force in 2024 and beyond.”
“Civics is more than dry facts about the three branches of government. Civics is also about being able to affect change, solve problems and make life better for all of us,” said Copeland Hanzas, who served as a lawmaker. “Individuals can only do so much on their own. Working together through civic participation allows us to accomplish more than any one person can do themselves.”
Copeland Hanzas has made civics education a tenet of her work since being elected to the post in 2022. She re-started the office’s civics program and created an Education and Civic Engagement Coordinator position in April 2023. Since then, the office has convened a Teacher Advisory Group to provide feedback and help develop K-12 civic education materials, partnered with the YMCA to administer a Youth Civic Health Survey at schools across the state.
Because getting kids interested and understanding civics early is critical.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University points out that “Among students who strongly agreed that they had high school experiences in which they felt their voices and opinions mattered, 81% said they are extremely likely to vote in the 2024 election. That’s nearly 25 points higher than the 57 percent of all youth in our survey who considered themselves extremely likely to vote, and almost double the 44% of youth who strongly disagreed they had student voice experiences and said they were likely to vote.”
Students who strongly recalled student voice experiences in high school also had a strong “civic engagement score,” measured by their responses on whether they’ve taken civic actions like volunteering, attending a protest, or running for office, according to CIRCLE.
Notably, these positive relationships between having student voice experiences in high school, likelihood to vote, and civic action were observed across all subgroups of youth, and remained strong even after controlling for race/ethnicity, gender, college experience and age, CIRCLE stated.
Those are the kinds of results we are looking for.
Go to sos.vermont.gov/secretary-of-state-services/civics to find out more about the Vermont Secretary of State’s Civics Program.
— The Rutland Herald
