From Texas to Florida to Arizona, school voucher policies are reshaping the landscape of American education. The Trump administration champions federal support for voucher expansion, and many state-level leaders are advancing school choice programs. Billions of public dollars are now flowing to private schools, church networks and microeducation platforms.  

The push to expand school choice is not just reallocating public funds to private institutions. It is reorganizing the very purpose of schooling. And in that shift, something essential is being lost — the public mission of education as a foundation of democracy. 

Civic education is becoming fragmented, underfunded and institutionally weak.  

In this moment of sweeping change, as public dollars shift from common institutions to private and alternative schools, the shared civic entities that once supported democratic learning are being diminished or lost entirely — traditional structures like public schools, libraries and community colleges are no longer guaranteed common spaces. 

The result is a disjointed system in which students may gain academic content or career preparation but receive little support in learning how to lead with integrity, think across differences or sustain democratic institutions. The very idea of public life is at risk, especially in places where shared experience has been replaced by polarization. We need civic education more than ever. 

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.  

If we want students who can lead a multiracial democracy, we need schools of every type to take civic formation seriously. That includes religious schools, charter schools and homeschooling networks. The responsibility cannot fall on public schools alone. Civic formation is not an ideological project. It is a democratic one, involving the long-term work of building the skills, habits and values that prepare people to work across differences and take responsibility for shared democratic life. 

What we need now is a civic education strategy that matches the scale of the changes reshaping American schooling. This will mean fostering coordinated investment, institutional partnerships and recognition that the stakes are not just academic, they are also democratic. 

Americans overwhelmingly support civic instruction. According to a 2020 survey in Texas by the Center of Women in Politics and Public Policy and iCivics, just 49 percent of teachers statewide believed that enough time was being devoted to teaching civics knowledge, and just 23 percent said the same about participatory-democracy skills. This gap is not unique to Texas, but there is little agreement on how civics should be taught, and even less structural support for the schools trying to do it. 

Without serious investment, civic formation will remain an afterthought — a patchwork effort disconnected from the design of most educational systems. 

This is not an argument against vouchers in principle. Families should have options. But in the move to decentralize education, we risk hollowing out its civic core. A democratic society cannot survive on academic content alone. It requires citizens — not just in the legal sense, but in the civic one. 

A democratic society needs people who can deliberate, organize, collaborate and build a shared future with others who do not think or live like they do. 

And that’s why we are building a framework in Texas that others can adopt and adapt to their own civic mission. 

The pioneering Democracy Schools model, to which I contribute, supports civic formation across a range of public and private schools, colleges, community organizations and professional networks.  

Civic infrastructure is the term we use to describe our approach: the design of relationships, institutions and systems that hold democracy together. Just as engineers build physical infrastructure, educators and civic leaders must build civic infrastructure by working with communities, not for or on them. 

We start from a democratic tradition rooted in the Black freedom struggle. Freedom, in this view, is not just protection from domination. It is the capacity to act, build and see oneself reflected in the world. This view of citizenship demands more than voice. It calls for the ability to shape institutions, policies and public narratives from the ground up. 

Related: STUDENT VOICE: My generation knows less about civics than my parents’ generation did, yet we need it more than ever 

The model speaks to a national crisis: the erosion of shared civic space in education. It must be practiced and must be supported by institutions that understand their role in building public life. Historically Black colleges and universities like Huston-Tillotson University offer a powerful example. They are not elite pipelines disconnected from everyday life. They are rooted in community, oriented toward public leadership and shaped by a history of democratic struggle. They show what it looks like to educate for civic capacity — not just for upward mobility. They remind us that education is not only about what students know, but about who they become and what kind of world they are prepared to help shape. 

Our national future depends on how well we prepare young people to take responsibility for shared institutions and pluralistic public life. This cannot be accomplished through content standards alone. It requires civic ecosystems designed to cultivate public authorship. 

We have an enormous stake in preparing the next generation for the demands of democratic life. What kind of society are we preparing young people to lead? The answer will not come from any single institution. It will come from partnerships across sectors, aligned in purpose even if diverse in approach. 

We are eager to collaborate with any organization — public, private or faith-based — committed to building the civic infrastructure that sustains our democracy. Wherever education takes place, civic formation must remain a central concern. 

Robert Ceresa is the founding director of the Politics Lab of the James L. Farmer House, Huston-Tillotson University. 

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.  

This story about civic education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

Excited chatter and the clattering of steel plates drown out the din of the monsoon rains: it is lunchtime in Laitsohpliah government school in the north-east Indian state of Meghalaya. The food has been cooked on-site and is free for everyone, part of India’s ambitious “midday meal” – PM Poshan – programme to incentivise school enrolment.

The scheme covers more than 1m state-run schools across the country, but the menu at Laitsohpliah is hyperlocal, thanks to a recent charity initiative in the state.

This lunchtime, apart from the staple rice and dal, there is a dish of potatoes with east Himalayan chives, cured dry fish and sohryngkham, a wild berry pickle.

Much of it has been sourced from local farmers, including parents of the pupils, while the rest has been grown in the school’s kitchen garden.

“Our students don’t like skipping meals any more,” says the headteacher, Nestar Kharmawphlang, who has taught at the school for 30 years.

Across the remote state of Meghalaya – originally part of Assam and home to the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo communities – fresh, locally sourced ingredients such as millet, fruit and wild greens are used to supplement the carbohydrate-heavy fare of rice, lentils and the occasional egg that dominate the programme’s menus.

The shift is courtesy of an initiative by the North East Society for Agroecology Support (Nesfas), which aims to make school lunches healthier, more sustainable and climate-resilient. Since 2022, Laitsohpliah has been one of 26 government-run schools in the state where lunches are transforming children’s appetites and energy levels through the use of locally grown and nutrient-rich ingredients.

Greece and OpenAI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country, eyeing education and SME utility.

Dubbed “OpenAI for Greece,” the collaboration between Greece and OpenAI was signed at the Hellenic Expo event, with key government officials in attendance. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Onassis Foundation President Anthony Papadimitriou, and OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane inked their signatures on the document.

Greece will pioneer the mainstream use of ChatGPT Edu, a tailor-made version of the AI chatbot for educational institutions. The MoU will back a phased pilot starting in the next academic session to integrate ChatGPT Edu into its educational system.

Under the first phase, authorities will focus on improving AI literacy among students and teachers in select institutions, with the second phase featuring a nationwide rollout. The Onassis Foundation will lead the implementation of ChatGPT Edu with The Tipping Point, which will be handling teacher onboarding.

“From Plato’s Academy to Aristotle’s Lyceum—Greece is the historical birthplace of western education,” said Lehane. “Today, with millions of Greeks using ChatGPT on a regular basis, the country is once again showing its dedication to learning and ideas.”

Going forward, a joint task force comprising representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Education will supervise the pilot project. Meanwhile, OpenAI will provide technical support and co-design a teacher’s training manual focusing on safety and productivity.

Launched in 2024, ChatGPT Edu has succeeded at leading universities, including Harvard and Oxford. OpenAI executives are confident of extended adoption levels in Europe, given its GDPR compliance, while offering students and teachers access to OpenAI’s latest models.

MoU poised to support the local startup ecosystem

Besides pushing to improve the local educational landscape, the MoU will launch the Greek AI Accelerator Program. The program will support Greek firms that are starting to build AI products and emerging technologies in partnership with Endeavor Greece.

Successful firms will have access to OpenAI technology and credits while receiving technical mentorship from OpenAI engineers. Furthermore, the program will offer tailored workshops on regulatory compliance and global safety standards while providing international exposure to local firms.

Before the MoU with OpenAI, Greece had taken early steps with AI to future-proof key industries. The country rolled out a national blueprint for AI while backing an AI-based platform to stifle the spread of fake news in Greek cyberspaces.

Indonesia unveils evaluation mechanism for responsible AI development

At the moment, Indonesia’s AI Ethics Guideline is still under development, but a self-assessment by local AI developers via an incident reporting system provided the Ministry with data for the evaluation mechanism.’

The Ministry’s Director of AI and New Technology Ecosystems, Aju Widya Sari, disclosed that the ethical guidelines will promote inclusiveness, safety, transparency, and accessibility. Following the above, the evaluation mechanism will reflect the ethical guidelines, allowing AI developers to operate under the highest global standards.

“The evaluation of the ethical guidelines will be carried out gradually to ensure ethical and responsible AI governance,” said Sari.

While not expressly stated, the evaluation mechanism will involve a multi-layer process involving rigorous checks from pre-deployment to post-deployment. Furthermore, pundits opine that the mechanism will feature metrics to measure fairness, transparency, privacy, and safety.

Sari disclosed that the evaluation mechanism will offer Indonesia the benefits of sustainability in its economy, social demographics, and environment. Indonesia has since launched an AI Center of Excellence to boost adoption demographics amid a keen stance for public safety.

Furthermore, the Southeast Asian country has made a significant play to deepen its talent pool for emerging technologies via a raft of initiatives.

AI regulation sweeps through the ecosystem

Amid the global push for AI innovation, attempts at regulation have gathered significant steam over the last year. While the EU has surged ahead with a regulatory playbook, other regions are adopting a cautious stance on AI rules for service providers.

Japan has adopted a friendly stance, while Switzerland is opting to remain neutral toward regulations, allowing the ecosystem to develop at its own pace. Meanwhile, UNESCO is riding a wave of international collaborations to promote ethical AI development, signing MoUs with Jamaica, Bangladesh, and the Netherlands.

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