Well, new this morning, the National Education Report Card was released overnight. It is painting a

concerning picture of our students. Academic performances have really slipped over this last year,

but some scores hitting lows set in the early 2000. The latest report card shows kids' history scores

are now historically low.

The nation's middle schoolers are struggling to explain major themes and events in the country's past and lack a basic understanding of the way government works.

You're listening to Civics 101. I'm Nick Capaddy-James.

I'm Hannah McCarthy.

And today our second episode in collaboration with I Civics, talking about what Hannah

and I learned at the Civic Learning Week National Forum in Philly.

Today we are going to hear why civics-wise, the kids are not all right.

But it is not all doom and gloom today, people who are fans of civics and civic education,

which I imagine is a large

chunk of the people who listen to this very show, those folks are going to get some good news.

So stick around.

You value this civics journalism in a time when civics education is hard to come by poorly funded plus this is public radio journalism and you probably know that the cpb which helped create our show

and almost entirely fund our show, was recently

eliminated. And that is why we do these fundraisers, where we give something back in return.

If you give $30 to the show, you can choose either our new Separation of Powers tote bag

or a Civics 101 baseball cap. And for $60, we will give you both.

And if you give $240, not only will you get all of our thank you gifts, including a snazzy NHPR t-shirt,

but we will acknowledge you or someone you care about in the credits of an upcoming episode.

Plus, all gifts, and I mean all of them,

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