This fall, millions of students are returning to public schools, where they will be regularly tested on how well they are mastering math and reading but not on how well they understand the American political tradition. They are beginning the school year in a country where the federal government invests 100 times less money in how they learn civics than in how they learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
For a long time, we got away with failing to teach young Americans the genius of our liberal democratic system and why it is worth defending. That’s because both political parties broadly endorsed the system. But in 2026, when the president of the United States routinely attacks liberal democratic norms, and a rising left-wing fringe is calling for repealing large parts of the U.S. Constitution, it’s long past time for a renaissance in teaching young people how to protect their freedoms and to detect the dangers of a demagogue.
The country needs to put the formation of citizens at the center of the educational experience and make it lively and engaging for students. In a new Progressive Policy Institute report, “Teaching American Democracy: Understanding Who We Are as Americans and Why,” we lay out a detailed plan for doing this. We hope both political parties will engage in this effort. Still, we think Democrats, who surveys find face a patriotism deficit of 19 points among working-class voters, have a special political incentive to do so.
