Task Forces and Commissions
Utah provides an example of a legislatively established task force. The Utah Commission on Civic and Character Education, established by the Utah Legislature (Utah Code 67-1a-10) is statutorily tasked with:
Several states have established official groups to explore the current state of civic education and make recommendations for policy improvement. These groups have a variety of names and configurations–task force, commission, special committee, working group, study group–and may be initiated by executive, legislative or judicial action. Commissions that include representatives from all three branches of government, as well as community stakeholders and experts, are most likely to identify goals and implementation strategies that will attract broad support from constituents. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education both established civic education task forces to address preparing citizens as a goal across K-16 state public education.70 Another example is the Virginia Commission on Civics Education, which was created in 2005 by the Virginia General Assembly and supported by the executive branch. Included among the 23 members were the governor, the lieutenant governor and other executive branch officials. These members offer the unique perspective of implementation, which can help the commission to make practical and feasible recommendations.
• Providing leadership for the state’s commitment to civic and character education in public schools, institutions of higher education and the larger community; • Making recommendations to school boards and administrators; and • Promoting coalitions and collaborative efforts that foster informed and civil public discourse and responsible citizenship. The commission carries out these tasks by funding and implementing commission-developed initiatives, or by partnering in selected programs which meet commission objectives and which benefit students or citizens across the state. Additionally, the commission also issues small grants to teachers, schools, community organizations or other entities to encourage and support various activities, which may not have a statewide audience, but which promote commission ideals.
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools found successful commissions share the following characteristics:
Task forces may arise through a variety of mechanisms other than legislative action. For example, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye worked with California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson to form the California Task Force on K-12 Civic Learning. The task force included leaders from law, education, business and labor groups, with the charge of analyzing the state of civic education in California and providing recommendations on how to improve K-12 civic education. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education in 2012 created the Study Group on Civic Learning and Engagement with a mandate to detail policy and implementation strategies to advance the state-established goal of “preparing citizens.”
• Established by a policymakers or state officials • Has a mandate to thoroughly examine current policy and practice • Is empowered to make substantive recommenda tions to policymakers • Has widely inclusive membership of stakeholders and policymakers (typically written into the estab lishing legislation or policy) • Has operating resources secured from the state or private sector donations
Additional details about these and other task forces and commissions are included in the State Civic Education Policy Examples section of this Toolkit.
• Issues a report of its proceedings, findings and recommendations • Has follow-up mechanisms to advocate for its recommendations
state civic education toolkit | 2017
19