While a majority agree on democracy’s importance, many feel unsure how to effectively participate in it or preserve it. For some, the frustration has taken a concerning turn: 11% said political violence is sometimes necessary to achieve progress. 

And while the poll’s creators expected to find significant variance based on race, gender and location — rural versus urban, for example — other factors, including socioeconomic status and access to civics education, played a major role in shaping young peoples’ beliefs. 

For example, those who received less support for their civic development “are less committed to a democracy that they may not feel prepared to participate in or feel they are a part of,” the report notes. 

“They’re not completely disaffected,” said research specialist Deborah Apau of Gen Z. “The problem is that while they do believe in democracy, they don’t feel that democracy as they experience it today is delivering for them. It’s that disconnection that’s really causing the issue.”

The poll was conducted between Nov. 14-26, 2024, just after a historically contentious presidential election in which the youth vote . The results were released earlier this month by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University and Protect Democracy, a nonprofit “dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom.” The polling firm Ipsos collected the data.

The findings might help explain Donald Trump’s popularity among young voters in his third run: nearly half under 30 supported the Republican nominee, , a survey of more than 120,000 voters. While he had massive appeal for young white men, he also fared well with young Latino men, who split their vote between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. 

The CIRCLE and Protect Democracy poll, which measured Gen Z’s beliefs and perspectives on democracy, civil rights and political violence, along with their support for bipartisan cooperation and feelings toward opposing political groups, revealed that young people crave bipartisanship and compromise.

Nearly 4 out of 5 say leaders of opposing parties should work together and 65% believe people with deeply opposing political views can find common ground. Likewise, only 17% agree that those who hold political opinions different from their own are “wrong.” 

Nearly three quarters of its 1,286 respondents said elected leaders should not be able to go above the law. The poll’s findings are landing at a time when many see the country as on the verge of a constitutional crisis, with Trump and at least one federal court judge finding grounds last week .

In an effort to engage young people, the organizations recommend they be brought into the democratic process, that the nation invest in civic learning, and that those wishing for Gen Z to boost their participation acknowledge their diversity and create opportunities for collaboration and collective action that leverages their strengths.

The poll notes that young people’s lives were shaped by economic instability, history-making political shifts, a proliferation of school shootings, the rise of social media and COVID. A full 81% of respondents acknowledged the value and meaning of free and fair elections.

The survey found, too, that 63% had a “passive appreciation” of democracy, meaning they trust government institutions, have a high regard for democratic principles, and reject authoritarianism and political violence. But, the study’s authors note, their satisfaction and trust may be leading to complacency as this group generally does not take political action outside of voting.

Thirty-one percent had a “dismissive detachment” from democracy: They didn’t express through the survey that they value core democratic principles and processes. They have low confidence in the system as it is working now and demonstrate higher support for authoritarian governance compared to their peers in other categories. 

Pollsters note this group has “the lowest levels of media literacy, suggesting that they are often consuming political information without the ability or willingness to confirm its source, truthfulness, or intent.” They also reported little confidence in their ability to be effective political actors.

Seven percent of Gen Z participants had a “hostile dissatisfaction” with democracy. While they value its core principles, they are “highly displeased” with it as they are experiencing it today, authors note. 

Despite — or perhaps because of — their frustration, they are the most politically active within this age group and express the highest support for political violence. The report notes, too, they are highly polarized “and their frustrations with the current system run so deep that they are more willing to consider extreme measures to achieve political goals.”

They are by far the most likely to participate in other forms of civic action like volunteering or taking on leadership roles and are willing to fight for the democracy they want. The report notes they score highest of all in media literacy, “which suggests they may be more informed about the state of democracy than some of their peers.” 

They are also more ideologically liberal than those in the other two groups and are more likely to be queer compared to the passive appreciation cohort.

“As knowledgeable actors with a respect for democratic values and a willingness to actively participate through both traditional and non-traditional forms of civic action, these youth who feel a hostile dissatisfaction with our democracy are also a powerful force for reshaping it,” the report observes. 

Sara Suzuki, senior researcher at CIRCLE, was surprised by the size of the first group defined by its “passive appreciation.” While she’s concerned about their relative inaction, she sees opportunity for them “to do something about the problems they see instead of sort of letting it happen.”

Apau, of Protect Democracy, said even the group that supports violence as a means of change still believes in democratic ideals — including its ability to function well.  

“They feel they’ve exhausted their options in terms of participating in things like voting and protests and they’re not able to secure the responses that they want,” she said.

Apau said it’s important to understand Gen Z and give them the tools they need, “so they’re resourced, they have the knowledge they need to move throughout the world later in life and in adulthood — and understand how systems work.”

Over the last several months, ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ has taken a look at some of the biggest education issues at play during the 2024 election cycle. Here’s an overview of the federal, state and local races and ballot measures that are poised to impact students, teachers and families the most. 

The White House 

In the first presidential debate of this election season between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the candidates were asked a question that was top of mind for parents and child advocates:

“In your second term, what would you do to make child care more affordable?” asked Trump during that June debate. 

But rather than focus on children, many critics said the two candidates behaved like them.

Even after Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the Democratic party’s presidential nominee and tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former public high school teacher, as her pick for the vice presidential candidate – education and child care still did not make it to the center stage of election season conversations.

Instead, most clues about Trump’s education policy have come from The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, an ambitious Republican agenda to transform the federal bureaucracy under a second Trump presidency. While Trump has denied any involvement in the creation of Project 2025, experts say the plan reflects many of the ideologies held by the former president and, if enacted, would have considerable fallout in the world of education. 

Project 2025’s chapter on education, for example, offers prescriptions for eliminating Title I grants to high-poverty schools, revising accreditation requirements under the Higher Education Act and dismantling the Department of Education, among other things. Overall, the plan seeks to reimagine the US government as a guardian of parents’ rights and supports school choice. 

Publicly, Trump has also said that he would pull funding from any schools that teach critical race theory or support transgender rights. 

Meanwhile, Harris has not offered much in terms of her education policy. She has made it clear that she thinks Trump’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education would be a terrible idea and has criticized his attacks on curricula taught in schools.

One item that could be on the table during a Harris presidency is a pay hike for teachers. Few may remember it now, but Harris took the biggest swing on education policy of any Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary: a $315 billion to raise teacher pay and overhaul the profession. The American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union, was the first group to voice their support of Harris as a presidential candidate this summer. 

While the two candidates have vastly different aims when it comes to education, there is one area both camps seem to (mostly) agree on: Expanding the Child Tax Credit. Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have embraced proposals to expand the program, which offers relief to parents of kids under 17 years old. Depending on the election outcome, neither party may hold enough power to enact its vision, however. 

National Issues

Bible teachings in public schools: Republicans have spent a lot of energy getting the Bible into public schools. Much of the spotlight has been on Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters, who mandated that schools stock classrooms with Bibles. Louisiana passed a law requiring schools to post the 10 Commandments in classrooms, the subject of , while the Texas Education Agency has proposed a Bible-infused reading curriculum that includes stories from the Old and New testaments. 

Whether those ideas will resonate with Christian voters is harder to answer. One recent poll suggests it won’t. On a long list of concerns influencing churchgoers’ views in this election, public schools ranked near the bottom as a reason why they would pick a presidential candidate. Instead, the economy and border security topped the list. 

School boards: Moms for Liberty, the conservative advocacy group, hasn’t been able to repeat its success at the polls since 2022, when its school board candidates were scoring victories across the country. Some say voters are clearly tired of what one researcher called the “politics of disruption.” Others believe the group’s leaders are more focused on adding members and mobilizing voters for Trump than winning local races. There have also been efforts to recruit moderates to run against conservative candidates like those from Moms for Liberty. 

A good indicator of who will win school board seats is whether the candidate has the endorsement of a teachers’ union. According to research out of Ohio State University and Boston College, a union endorsement increases support for candidates by as much as 20 percentage points among various voting blocs, with the effects particularly concentrated among Democrats and those who favor organized labor. Almost no group, including Republicans, responds negatively to the endorsements, the authors found.

School choice: A high-stakes political battle is brewing around school choice. GOP groups are funneling millions of dollars into state races to defeat critics of education savings accounts. In Texas, observers say, the victories by pro-ESA candidates could lead to a more conservative legislature or a potential Democratic backlash. 

It’s worth noting that voters have a history of rejecting private school choice measures at the ballot box. Recent voucher proposals garnered less than a . But advocates in three states are hoping to break that trend on Election Day. In , voters will decide whether to preserve or overturn 2023 legislation that created a private school scholarship program. Initiatives in and , if approved, could pave the way for lawmakers to create vouchers or education savings accounts in the future.

State and local races and ballot measures 

Arizona: The outcome of Arizona’s legislative races could upend what has been one of America’s most welcoming environments for school choice. Democrats, who already hold the governorship, could take control of both legislative chambers by flipping just four seats, which would make Arizona voters the first in the nation to hand over governance of an ESA program to its opponents. 

California: A single, heated school board race in Los Angeles could help decide the fate of the nation’s largest charter school sector and the LA Unified School District. Upstart vows to bring a pro-charter voice to LA Unified’s board, but faces stiff opposition from union-backed incumbent . 

Delaware: With at least eight high-level reports over the last 25 years calling for a wholesale overhaul of a Jim Crow-era school funding formula that gives more state aid to wealthy districts and shortchanges disadvantaged kids, whoever wins Delaware’s governor race will have their work cut out for them. 

Illinois: October was already destined to be a tumultuous chapter in Chicago politics, as voters prepared for the first school board elections in the city’s history. But the abrupt resignation of the city’s existing school board, and the related crisis of governance over the country’s fourth-largest school system, has magnified local divisions over finance and the role of the powerhouse Chicago Teachers Union. Now locals are wondering if the mayor can keep the district solvent — and his own administration afloat. 

Indiana: In Indiana’s governor race, GOP U.S. Senator Mike Braun, who’s been endorsed by Donald Trump, wants to expand the state’s school choice voucher program. If elected, Braun and his running mate, far-right , have pledged universal school choice for every Indiana family while focusing on parental rights and school safety. His opponent, former state schools chief Jennifer McCormick, who has the backing of the state teachers union, seeks to expand affordable child care, fight what she believes is excessive state-mandated testing and call for an equitable school funding formula. 

Massachusetts: In Massachusetts, Ballot Question 2 asks voters to decide if the MCAS exam should remain a high school graduation requirement. If it passes, Massachusetts would have no statewide graduation requirements, making it an outlier nationally. Instead, its some 300 districts would determine requirements locally. Those in favor of repealing the requirement — largely backed by the state teachers union — argue it narrows curriculum and harms students with disabilities and English language learners. Those who want to keep the test, including Gov. Maura Healey, say it’s an important accountability measure. 

Minnesota: If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected in November, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan, will become the first Indigenous woman governor in U.S. history. The daughter of a Hubert H. Humphrey campaign strategist and an Ojibwe land-rights activist — Flanagan was the youngest person elected to the Minneapolis School Board. She has promoted free school lunch and Indigenous curriculum.

North Carolina: North Carolina’s race for governor has been marked by scandal. In September, that Republican nominee Mark Robinson called himself a “Black Nazi” and posted “slavery is not bad” anonymously on a porn site. Beyond the controversies, Robinson has kept education debates centered on eradicating the presence of “politics” and “indoctrination” in schools, and . His challenger, Democratic candidate Josh Stein, told that his top priority as governor would be to improve public education. He has also supported to address the youth mental health crisis, and wants to expand access to community colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Whoever is elected as the state’s leader will appoint individuals for , subject to confirmation by the assembly. 

Another pivotal race in North Carolina will be for superintendent. Republican candidate Michele Morrow, a homeschooler who rallied outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, has a history of disparaging public schools with choice words like “indoctrination centers.” She faces Democrat Maurice “Mo” Green, a lawyer and former district superintendent. Whoever wins will be responsible for more than 2,700 schools and a $13 billion education budget. 

Rhode Island: Providence, Rhode Island’s school board has been appointed by the mayor for decades, but voters will be able to pick board members again this election. The catch is that state control of the district was just extended to 2027, limiting what the new board can do. New members will still have to navigate their way out of state control as well as handle challenges with low test scores, falling enrollments, school closures and demand for more charter schools. 

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New Hampshire public and private high schools will soon be required to give voting information to students, under a law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu this month.

requires that civics instruction “include information on the laws governing election and voting” in New Hampshire. That information would supplement what is to be taught in schools for history and civics, including the structures of the New Hampshire Constitution and U.S. Constitution, and the role and function of government.

Currently, the State Board of Education to distribute copies of the state constitution and state voting laws to middle schools and high schools for civics instruction. But HB 1014 would directly mandate that schools use that information to bolster “the role, opportunities, and responsibilities of a citizen to engage in civic activity.”

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The bill comes as part of an effort by some to increase participation in elections among young people. Voting rights advocates have noted that only 15 percent of 18-year-olds in the state were registered to vote in the 2022 midterm elections.

Rep. Mark Paige, an Exeter Democrat, noted that students with disabilities who have individualized education plans already receive information about registering to vote.

“This then just expands that to every student in the state,” he said in a May 7 Senate hearing.

But some voting advocates have criticized the bill for not going far enough in requiring that high school students be directly taught how to register to vote. Originally, the bill required high schools to “adopt policies to promote student voter registration”; the House amended that to mandate that students are instructed in the laws instead.

In an unrelated section added by the Senate, the bill requires that any public school district, town, or city use the official name for state holidays – effectively barring those entities from calling “Columbus Day” “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” The bill takes effect Sept. 12.

HB 1014 was one of a handful of voting-related bills signed by Sununu July 12. The governor also signed , which allows town clerks, assistant clerks, and clerks pro tem to deliver absentee ballots to nursing homes and other elder care facilities.

And Sununu signed , which requires that town and city election officials allow the public to observe the use of any voting tabulators as they are used on election night, and directs those officials to post the printout of the machine’s tabulated results within 60 minutes of running the machines.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

A new law changing voting ID requirements makes it more challenging for out-of-state college students to vote.

requires a photo ID to vote — meaning an unexpired Ohio driver’s license, a state ID card, U.S. passport or military card — so out-of-state college students must get an Ohio issued ID card if they want to vote in Ohio.

But getting an Ohio issued ID card would invalidate their driver’s license in another state.

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“Out-of-state college students are really hampered by this bill because the structure of this bill and the photo ID requirements for voting in person really puts out-of-state college students between a rock and a hard place,” said ACLU Ohio Deputy Policy Director Collin Marozzi.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed HB 458, originally introduced by State Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Twp. in October 2021, into law on Jan. 6 and it will go into effect on April 7. This has been called .

But Ohio Secretary of State’s office doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s not problematic,” said Rob Nichols, the press secretary for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. “It’s not adding additional hurdles or anything like that.”

The new law limits counties to one ballot drop box, shortens the window to request absentee ballot to one week before the election and absentee ballots must be received four days after Election Day. The law also mandates citizenship status on IDs and excludes county-issued veterans’ identification and college IDs from the list of IDs one can use to vote.

Out-of-state college students

The new law specifically puts hurdles in front of out-of-state college students, Marozzi said.

“Out-of-state college students have just as much a right to vote in Ohio as any other eligible Ohio voter,” he said. â€śWhat’s at stake is this student population having a voice in their government. It is a fundamental aspect of American life for people to be able to have a say in their government.”

College students live on their college campuses at least nine months out of the year and should be able to easily cast a vote in the county they live in, he said.

Students can use a passport as a photo-ID, but Marozzi questions how many college students have a passport and, if they do, how many bring their passport to college.

If college students don’t want to get a state-issued ID or a passport, their only other option is voting by mail “and we know that can be a very arduous process,” Marozzi said.

“It requires planning ahead significantly, making sure that you are meeting all the request deadlines, and meeting those mailing deadlines,” he said.

The new voter ID requirements “puts out the unwelcome mat” for out-of-state students coming to Ohio, said David Niven, a University of Cincinnati professor in the school of public and international affairs.

“It probably hits college students as hard as any group within the state,” Niven said. “It really becomes a logistical dilemma.”

How Ohio colleges are responding to the new law

Sierra Nathans, a graduate assistant for Bowling Green State University Votes, said college students already complain that the voting process is too difficult.

“This one extra step will make it that much harder for people to want to do it,” she said. “Any steps you add to it are going to make people not want to do it. We should be making it easier (to vote), not harder.

BGSU’s spring semester ends days before Ohio’s May 2 primary election and Bowling Green doesn’t have any ballots on the primary, so Nathans said they are encouraging out-of-state students to vote in their home state for primary elections.

For the Nov. 7 general election, she said they recommend out-of-state students either get an Ohio state-issued ID card or register to vote using their home address and request an absentee ballot.

University of Cincinnati Votes recently hosted an information session for students on the new voting ID requirements.

“They go to school here and they deserve to have the chance to give their opinion on a candidate, an issue, whatever is on the ballot when it comes time since they do go to school here in Ohio as well,” said Callie Buchanan, a 19-year-old UC sophomore from Zanesville. “It can lead to them not knowing what the restrictions are when they go to vote and then they’ll get turned away at the polling place.”

Ohio State University spokesperson Dave Isaacs said the university will develop guidelines for out-of-state students over the summer and is “happy to work with individuals” in the meantime who have questions.

The deadline to register to . Early voting begins April 4 and ends April 30.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

The study, circulated as by the National Bureau of Economic Research, represents the latest evidence pointing to some charters as institutions that strengthen civic engagement. A that focused on North Carolina schools found lasting benefits to traditionally underserved students, including more frequent voting and reduced criminality, who attended a charter secondary school rather than a traditional public school.

And both echo the findings of of the civics-focused Democracy Prep charter schools. Graduates of the network, which operates over 20 schools across five states, were 12 percentage points more likely to vote in the 2016 presidential election than similar students, according to that study, and substantially more likely to be registered as voters. 

Sarah Cohodes, an economist at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a co-author of the Boston paper, noted that the voting effects she found were about half as large as those generated by Democracy Prep — six percentage points of increased voting likelihood, from a status quo of 35 percent — and that she measured no impact on registration. But a network like Democracy Prep, which persistently emphasizes civic participation and demands that students demonstrate mastery over multiple democratic skills, might be expected to lift voter participation, Cohodes added.

“This [research] is showing that even if you have a school where civics isn’t the mission, but you are still instilling more general skills — executive function, conscientiousness — alongside academic skills, that spills over into voting,” she said.

Cohodes and co-author James Feigenbaum, a professor of economics at Boston University, gathered student records from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, along with lottery reports and voter records. The academic data included a battery of student demographic information, as well as performance metrics on state standardized tests, Advanced Placement course enrollment, SAT-taking, and college enrollment and persistence. Their sample included 12 Boston charters that enrolled students who were at least 18 years old at the time of the 2016 U.S. elections.

They then matched those records with Massachusetts voter files drawn from 2012, 2015, and 2018 (as well as files from nearby states New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine, to account for out-of-state moves). 

Like many other studies of charter school effectiveness, the analysis relies on the lottery mechanism that randomly assigns admissions to Boston’s heavily oversubscribed charter sector. Lottery “winners” (students who are ultimately enrolled in the charters) are broadly similar to lottery “losers” in terms of racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and prior academic performance.

After comparing the two sets of data, the authors found that charter attendance increased students’ incidence of voting in their first presidential election after turning 18 by about 17 percent. That effect is particularly noteworthy because the study found that charter attendance did not seem to increase voter registration, as one of the biggest procedural barriers preventing people from turning out on Election Day.

But within those results, an even more striking pattern emerged: The average increase in voting is the result of an especially large boost to female charter students — 12.5 percentage points — and no corresponding rise among males. That outcome generally mirrors , which have increasingly shown females outvoting males in recent years. 

To isolate a possible explanation for the gender split, the authors studied the various ways in which Boston charters affected their pupils compared with traditional public schools, including academic aptitude (measured through test scores), civic skills (measured through enrollment in an AP government or U.S. history class), and non-cognitive abilities (measured through school attendance and a student’s decision to take the SAT). Ultimately, the third category was the only realm in which a similar gender disparity existed, showing significant increases for girls compared with boys.

That detail is reminiscent of research conducted by political scientist John Holbein, who has found that high school students who are more likely to describe themselves as gritty are also more frequent voters. The link between non-cognitive skills like grit and persistence and voting propensity could be due to the obstacles that often stand in the way of filling out a ballot, Cohodes argued.

“You have to register, you have to find your polling place, you have to make your plan for getting there and getting off of work,” she said. “And then you actually have to show up and do it all. That involves persistence and follow-through, and…that’s where I see those schools coming in.”

It’s unclear whether charter schools in Boston are aiding the cultivation of such follow-through in female, but not male, students — or, perhaps, that they are burnishing those qualities in equal measure, but that boys begin school already far behind their female classmates. In either instance, Cohodes concluded, the findings provide more reason to think that the civic byproducts of charter schooling could be as consistent as their academic effects, which have largely been shown to be replicable across different settings and charter models.

“I do think it’s a different dimension of skill from academics, so it’s not necessarily the case that the schools that are bringing up test scores the most are also bringing up voting the most. But the things that Boston charters do are also things that KIPP schools do, that STRIVE charters and others do. So it’s not like it’s something that’s totally out of left field.”