Policy Committee

The Policy Committee's role in the campaign is to work with state and local governments, school boards, and other agencies to examine existing policies addressing civic education and to generate new policies to strengthen civic education statewide.

Gary Dei Rossi - Chair
San Joaquin County Office of Education

AB 2544 Update

California Assembly Bill 2544 has passed out of the Assembly and the Senate Education Committee. It is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File and maybe considered again on August 7. AB 2544 requires the State Superintendent of Education to develop a model civic education professional development plan focused on the six promising practices in civic education identified in the Carnegie Foundation of New York’s Civic Mission of Schools Report.  

To keep AB 2544 alive, please send letters to Tom Torlakson, Chair, urging him to pass this bill out of the Appropriations Committee. Send faxes by August 6 to:

Senator Torlakson, Chair
Senate Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814

Fax: 916-445-2527

Links:

California Assembly Bill 2544

Sample Letter of Support for AB 2544 (MS Word)

Letter of Support – from California PTA

Letter of Support – from California School Board Association

Letter of Support – from Center for Civic Education

Letter of Support – from Sacramento County Office of Education

 

Six Promising Approaches in Civic Education

Civic Mission of Schools Report from the Carnegie Foundation of New York

Democracy for Some: The Civic Opportunity Gap in High School

San Francisco Chronicle (March 9, 2008): Voter turnout spotlights educational need

California Survey of Civic Education

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 30, introduced by Assembly Member McCarthy, was signed into law in June, 2005. The bill urges the State Board of Education and all local school governing bodies in California to examine current practice and develop plans to increase and broaden emphasis on principles and practices of democracy

Resolutions passed in support of the California campaign:

Testimony to Commission on No Child Left Behind, April 2006:



A project of Constitutional Rights Foundation in collaboration with the
Center for Civic Education and the Alliance for Representative Democracy.
This project is made possible by generous grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Skirball Foundation