Dear friend,
These days, it can seem tough to find good news to celebrate with just a quick glance at the headlines. But in my role at the Jack Miller Center, I have the privilege of hearing inspiring stories from the civics renaissance happening across the nation all the time. I wanted to share a few with you.
Our friends at
City Journal recently argued that the “
missing link in higher ed reform” is a talent pipeline. How can we ensure that talented scholars become tenured professors and can transform students’ lives? At the Jack Miller Center, we’ve been working on solving that problem for more than two decades. And as reform movements across academia show, our efforts are paying off in a big way.
Colleagues and I got to take part in
a meeting co-convened by Johns Hopkins University and the American Enterprise Institute two weeks ago on the future of “civic thought and practice” in higher education. There’s incredible momentum, and JMC is at the center of the action. Nine out of thirteen of the deans and directors heading up these programs are Jack Miller Fellows – we spotted their talent early on in their careers, and we supported them throughout their academic journeys. Another statistic we’re proud of: one-third of all faculty at these newly established schools are a part of our academic network.
The sheer scale of this civics renaissance is impressive – but I wanted to share just a few key updates with you on the broader movement:
- The Wall Street Journal recently published an editorial about a $100 million investment in civic thought and leadership at the University of Texas-Austin. Their dean, Justin Dyer, is a JMC scholar poised to accomplish incredible things. For more on his school’s incredible work, I highly recommend you watch a speech he recently gave.
- In Ohio, the state legislature established five new schools of civic thought to promote intellectual diversity and academic excellence. They each now officially have executive directors, and will be hiring a slew of new faculty in turn.
- The Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University recently released new polling demonstrating the need for greater civic awareness. In a post about the data, they gave a shout-out to the Jack Miller Center for our commitment to “doubl[ing] down on civics education.” As more and more people are recognizing, civics is the cause of the next generation.
I wanted to close by quoting a recent piece by the Jack Miller Center’s very own Stephen Matter. As a recent graduate of Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, he knows just how transformative this kind of education can be. “This blend of civic and liberal education keeps the question of our own citizenship in the forefront of our minds,” Stephen writes in
a recent essay for Public Discourse, “and for that reason it will better prepare us for the task of reassessing the potential of democracy and the health of our society.”
As Stephen and his fellow graduates of SCETL and other similar institutions know, the American Republic is founded on the conviction that a free society requires responsible citizenship. But that belief doesn’t come to young citizens automatically. It is something that has to be learned from great teachers and great books. That’s why I am so proud to be involved with a renaissance rooted in that wisdom – and I hope you’ll join us as we fight to make this kind of renewal the cause of a rising generation.
Sincerely,
