Schools, Education Policy, and the Future of the First Amendment

Abstract

A democracy requires broad public support for freedom of expression. Individuals form persistent views about civil liberties and other political issues during adolescence. Many factors influence adolescents' opinions and beliefs, including what they learn and experience in schools. Therefore, schools' treatment of the Constitution and the press is important for the future of the First Amendment. In turn, state policies influence what schools teach and what extracurricular experiences they offer. This article estimates the impact of existing state policies and students' experiences on students' knowledge of, and attitudes toward, the First Amendment. A hierarchical linear model analysis of data from the Knight Foundation 2005 Future of the First Amendment survey, combined with data on state education policies, reveals that discussing the news media in class enhances students' attitudes and habits related to the free press. Also, when their teachers have required the use of news media in classes, students are more likely to use the news media regularly. For the most part, however, existing state policies that might be expected to enhance students' knowledge, attitudes, or habits related to the First Amendment do not seem to have a significant impact. The most promising types of new policies would be ones that support the discussion of news in classrooms.

Keywords:

• first amendment
• freedom of speech
• civics

Notes

1. Review of 14 studies in Youniss and Hart (2002). Portions of this article appear in Youniss, McLellan, and Yates (1997; see also Jennings & Stoker, 2004, and Zaff, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c). Certain intense experiences have lifelong effects on fundamental civic identities (see McAdam, 1990, Stewart et al., 1998).

2. ANES and GSS tabulations by the authors.

3. Their list of media standards by state is available from the Media Literacy Clearinghouse at http://medialit.med.sc.edu/statelit.htm.