Civics is the word we use when we talk about teaching students how democracy actually works. Not how it’s supposed to work in theory, but how it functions in practice — the competing interests, the institutional constraints, the trade-offs inherent in self-governance. Without that foundation, you don’t get critical thinkers. You get people who respond to rhetoric rather than reason.

After two decades watching policy get made from inside the system, I can tell you that the gap between what people understand about government and how government actually operates is enormous. Most people couldn’t explain why federalism matters, or how it constrains power. They don’t know why institutional checks exist. They just know what they feel about current events, which is a dangerous way to participate in democracy.

Teaching history — real history, not sanitized narrative — gives students the pattern recognition they need. You see how ideologies have played out. You understand the consequences of concentrated power. You grasp why institutions matter more than individuals. These aren’t abstract lessons. They’re the intellectual tools a functional citizenry needs.

Higher education should be producing the next generation of policy leaders, which means producing people who can think clearly about power, incentives, and institutional design. That doesn’t happen through ideology in either direction. It happens when you force students to grapple with history as it actually occurred, to understand why people made the choices they did, and to think rigorously about consequences. That’s what restoring civics education really means.

It’s happening…here in Florida. And not a moment too soon.

Restoring Civics in Higher Education

Governor DeSantis signed SB 1264, which does the following: *Adds to existing Communist history standards with instruction on the history of Communism in the United States and the tactics of Communist movements. *Authorizes the newly-established Institute for Freedom in the Americas at Miami Dade College to promote the importance of economic and individual freedoms as a means to advance human progress — specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. *Enables the Florida Department of State, in collaboration with the Florida Department of Education, to recommend to the Legislature the creation of a Florida-based museum on the history of Communism. *Prepares students to withstand indoctrination on Communism at colleges and universities.