Every few weeks, GC picks out a selection of articles that are relevant to our work and to the civics education space as a whole. We at GC love to expand our learning in every aspect of what we do, and we hope you enjoy our selections!

Factoring Schools into the Calculus of City Budgeting, New America

The city of Austin’s next annual budget will be molded by detailed feedback from public school students, thanks to partnerships between teachers, city officials, tech leaders, and others.

Civics education a building block of our American Democracy, Arizona Capitol Times; and NH needs more robust civics education, New Hampshire Business Review.

These op-eds, written by state legislators from Arizona and New Hampshire, respectively, express elected officials’ perspectives on the importance of high quality civics education in our schools.

Black and brown boys don’t need to learn “grit,” they need schools to stop being racist. Hechinger Report.

The title says it all. This powerful column argues that a focus on “soft skills” training is misplaced when systems and institutions are the real barriers to success for many black and brown youth.

How Utah Keeps the American Dream Alive, Bloomberg.

This piece offers an in-depth look at how Salt Lake City ranks at the top of measures of upward mobility among American cities, what makes Utah unique, and what lessons other cities and states can learn from the case study. The “compassionate conservative” model works well in Utah, but may not necessarily be as viable in other areas.

County Elections: Voter Registration for Students is a Text Away, East County Today.

As part of High School Voter Education Week in California, Contra Costa County is launching a service that allows citizens to send a text message and receive a link to register or pre-register to vote from their phones.