A proposal to create civics education requirements for all Alaska high school students is advancing in the Legislature, amid a deepening decline in public trust in government nationwide.
Senate President Gary Stevens, from Kodiak, sponsored Senate Bill 23, which would require high school students to take a semester of civics curriculum, pass a civics exam or complete a project-based assessment in order to graduate.
The bill is under consideration in the House Finance Committee after it passed the Senate in March, with more committee hearings scheduled for this week. The Legislature faces a May 20 adjournment deadline.
Stevens, a longtime legislator and former University of Alaska professor, told House members at a hearing on March 18 the goal is to inspire students to be more engaged with their government and civic affairs.
“What we hope to do is to rekindle the spirit within our education system to help foster citizenship and voting and community engagement, which is really a fundamental purpose, I think, of public education,” Stevens said.
Civics education is the study of how local, state and federal government works in the constitutional democracy of the United States. That includes government laws and history, the rights of citizens and structures of power.
Stevens said in an interview on April 29 that he sees expanding civics education as a way to combat growing distrust or misunderstanding of government.
“Certainly, I think there’s just a lack of understanding. I have talked to a lot of kids who just have no idea that there is a state government and there is a federal government. There’s a difference between the two,” he said.
The bill would direct the Alaska State Board of Education to provide open access, no-cost educational resources to districts covering 14 areas of government, politics and public affairs. Those 14 areas include the founding principles of the United States, the Alaska and U.S. Constitutions, federalism, civil liberties and civil rights, political parties, campaigns and elections, comparative systems of government including by Alaska Native tribes, and others.
If enacted, students would have three options to fulfill the graduation requirement: take and pass a semester-long comparative government and civics course, pass a civics exam — with an option to retake the exam if they did not pass — or opt to complete a civics-related project.
Shawn Healy with iCivics, a nonpartisan advocacy organization founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to promote civics learning, testified in support of the bill. He said many states across the country are taking steps to bolster civics education.
“Just since 2021, 33 states have adopted at least 51 policies to strengthen civics education, and just this spring, we’re following 218 bills in 40 states, including Senate Bill 23, that seek to strengthen civic education,” he said.
Healy told lawmakers that often people do not understand where to go to solve problems in their communities. He said supporting civics education in schools and dialogue on public issues — across political divides — can help address polarization.
Stevens has sponsored previous bills to strengthen civics education that were approved by the Senate in 2024 and 2022, but they were unsuccessful in gaining support and stalled before reaching a vote on the House floor.
Stevens said some of the past opposition was related to a concern the state would be imposing an unfunded mandate for schools, but that is addressed in the current bill, which requires the state to provide with the open, no-cost educational resources. Other concerns were related to what critics called a “high stakes” test requirement to graduate. He said those are addressed by having three options for meeting the requirement in the bill.
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