At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman approached the eldest delegate, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, outside of Independence Hall. She asked whether the framers had created a monarchy or a republic. In reply, he told her that America would be “a republic, if you can keep it.”

Dr. Franklin's brief response captures a vital, often overlooked aspect of one of the key ingredients in making our democracy work: an educated and engaged citizenry. In a democracy in which the final authority rests with the people, our local, state, and federal governments will only be as responsive and great as citizens demand them to be.

Over two centuries after Dr. Franklin's remark, many believe that the democratic process he helped create is growing incapable of meeting America's great national challenges. A recent study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that only a third of Americans trust the federal government as an institution. This distrust is understandable among generations that grew up in the shadow of political scandals, increasing ideological polarization, and financial crisis.

When this distrust leads to disengagement, cynicism, and a national attention span that fails to see politics as much more than a series of elections and scandals, it distracts from the many challenges that we as a society must face—and can only face together through civic and political engagement. The great national challenges of our time can only be solved by an engaged citizenry knowledgeable about our problems and how best to solve them.

Those who blame our democratic shortfalls on a media failing its responsibilities, the proliferation of money in politics, and politicians serving narrow interests rather than the common good are not wrong—all these are very real threats
to American democracy. But all three of these threats, and others, would be ameliorated by a more knowledgeable and engaged citizenry.

Knowledge of our system of governance and our rights and responsibilities as citizens is not passed along through the gene pool. Each generation of Americans must be taught these basics. Families and parents have a key role to play, yet our schools remain the one universal experience we all have to gain civic knowledge and skills. That is the civic mission of schools. Only through education—which spans well over a decade of a child's life and encompasses that which takes place both within the classroom and outside of it—can we ensure that every young person can live up to Dr. Franklin's challenge. It takes only a brief look at statistics about shortfalls in civic knowledge and participation (see pages 14–15 of this report) to see the extent to which our democracy is in peril.

To meet this peril, we both have founded programs that seek to reach tens of thousands of students. The iCivics program features online lessons on the three branches of government, the Bill of Rights, executive power, and the federal budget. The Center on Congress uses a range of curricular materials and teacher training to help citizens understand how to be effective in bringing their concerns to their elected officials.

Bringing a high–quality civic education to every American student requires more than individual programs and curricula, however. It requires a systematic approach that is only possible through public policy. Since American federalism means that local, state, and federal governments share custody of education policy, restoring the civic mission of schools must be the responsibility of policymakers at every level.

This report outlines that challenge. We strongly believe that following the recommendations in this report will revitalize the democracy we love so much for generations to come. After all, American democracy is only ours, as Dr. Franklin
reminds us, if we can keep it.