Americans have lost confidence in higher education. And rightly so, for it has largely abandoned its core mission of civic education, of the study of Western Civilization, and of the foundational principles on which America was founded.

Key Points:

  • A national survey shows that only one in three Americans knows that there are three branches of government in the American system.
  • The same national survey reveals, “Only 46% of respondents believe the U.S. is performing well on the vital need to understand our system of government—a gap of 49 percentage points from the 95% who call it important for the nation’s success.”
  • Three organizations, the National Association of Scholars, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the James G. Martin Center, have joined to produce a model proposal to restore the mission of American higher education: the “General Education Act.”
  • The General Education Act would establish at one leading Texas public university a 42-hour General Education Core Curriculum that emphasizes American History, American Government, and Western Civilization.
  • The General Education Act would also establish a new School of General Education to hire and train professors responsible for general education.