"When most Americans think about K-12 education, reading, writing and arithmetic tend to come to mind first. But public schooling, as envisioned by Horace Mann, serves another vital purpose — to educate students about their roles and responsibilities as members of the nation’s constitutional democracy. 

"Unfortunately, over the past half-century, that central civic mission has largely been lost. But if this moment in the country’s history has made one thing clear, it is that now is the time for schools to again teach young people the fundamentals of what it means to be informed and engaged members of this self-governing society, and what is needed if the country is going to recover from the current polarization and discontent." - Ashley Berner, Christina Ross