Sponsors
The bill expands and guarantees federal support for hands‑on civic education—improving students' civic skills, media literacy, and engagement—while shifting implementation costs, raising neutrality and privacy safeguards concerns, and reducing some prior allocation constraints that may create administrative uncertainty.
Schools, states, and local education programs receive a dedicated $40 million in guaranteed annual federal funding to support K–12 civic education programs and services.
School districts and education programs gain predictable, year‑to‑year federal funding that improves planning and program stability.
K–12 students nationwide gain hands‑on civic skills (mock elections, simulations, model congresses, meetings with officials) that improve civic knowledge and engagement.
Many schools and districts will face added implementation costs (travel, service‑learning coordination, materials, technology) that could strain already tight local budgets and create inequities in access.
Expands allowable activities (travel, simulations, online programs) in ways that may increase overall program costs and require additional funding to implement equitably.
Programs that facilitate voter registration, meetings with elected officials, or student reporting could raise concerns about partisan influence or require strict neutrality safeguards to avoid politicization of classrooms.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Provides a permanent $40M/year for K–12 civics/history education and expands allowable civics activities (simulations, constitutional instruction, service‑learning, media literacy, voter participation, trips, online learning).
Introduced March 11, 2026 by Andy Kim · Last progress March 11, 2026
Provides a permanent, annual $40 million appropriation to expand and support K–12 American history and civics education and explicitly lists a wide set of permissible civic activities schools and programs may use funds for. It updates the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to authorize hands‑on civic simulations, constitutional instruction, study of how under‑represented groups increased democratic participation, service‑learning tied to curriculum, travel to government and historical sites, meetings with community organizations and officials, student journalism and governance support, media literacy (including social media), respectful debate skills, voter registration and civic participation support, and online or game‑based learning. The bill mainly changes program language in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to create a dedicated funding stream and to broaden and clarify what counts as allowable well‑rounded and civics education activities administered or funded through Department of Education programs.