The Orrin G. Hatch Center recently published an op-ed titled "America is facing a civics crisis. Here's how to fix it." It states that we are in "A pandemic of civic disengagement and deepening recession in civic education... According to the Nation's Report Card, only 15% of students are proficient in American history and a mere 24% are proficient in civics... and only one in three Americans could pass the citizenship test... we must make the teaching of civics a greater priority in our schools." The report continues... "Over the last two decades, civics has taken a back seat to STEM education — both in terms of funding and time devoted to classroom instruction. If numbers are any indication of how much we value civic education, then we value it hardly at all. Consider that each year, the federal government invests more than $50 per student on STEM education and a pitiful 5 cents per student on civic education. Judging by this metric, civics is 1,000 times less important than STEM. If we value civics so little, then it makes sense that American democracy is on the ropes."