Constitution must get its day in classrooms

WASHINGTON – The Constitution long has ensured that Congress can’t tell schools what to teach. But that’s no longer the case for at least one topic – the Constitution itself.

The Education Department outlined Tuesday how it plans to enforce a little-known provision that Congress passed in 2004: Every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

Schools can determine what kind of educational program they want, but they must hold one every year on the now-named “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.” And if Sept. 17 falls on a weekend or holiday, schools must schedule a program immediately before or after that date.

Historically, the federal government has avoided dictating what or when anything must be taught because those powers rest with the states under the 10th Amendment. The Education Department’s Web site even underlines that point, saying matters such as the development of curricula and the setting of course requirements fall outside federal authority.

But Congress stepped in when it came to the nation’s foundational document, thanks to Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who keeps a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. Byrd inserted the Constitution lesson mandate into a massive spending bill in 2004, frustrated by what he called a huge ignorance on the part of many Americans about history.

It so happened that the Education Department’s new guidelines emerged just as Byrd and the Senate, engaged in a fight over judicial filibusters, debated the Constitution’s checks and balances.

Neither the department nor Congress has required a specific curriculum or a particular interpretation of the Constitution, Byrd said in an interview Monday.

“I hope that schools will develop many different, creative ways to enable students to learn about one of our country’s most important historic documents,” he said. “The Constitution protects their freedoms and will impact all facets of their lives.”

National surveys and test scores in recent years have shown many students don’t know much about history. A study of high school attitudes this year revealed most students take for granted the First Amendment to the Constitution. More than one in three students said the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, such as freedom of religion, speech and the press.

Yet some education groups say Congress has no business dictating what schools and universities must do on a certain day.