Tommy Washbush / Freepik
An illustration depicting the three branches of government, with the executive branch crushing the other two.
In an interview on WPR’s Wisconsin Today, host Rob Ferrett asked U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) about President Donald Trump’s attempts to restrict federal funds that had already been appropriated by Congress.
“Some people are making the argument that these are appropriations passed by Congress, signed by presidents in the past,” Ferrett said. “Congress famously has the power of the purse as described in the American Constitution. People are saying this is executive overreach…Do you worry that your prerogatives in Congress are getting a little stepped on?”
“I believe it’s appropriate that this administration is saying, hold it, time out, we want to make sure this money is going to appropriate purposes,” Tiffany responded. “So did we appropriate the money? Yes we did. But it is up to the executive branch to make sure that the money is going out in a fashion that represents the will of the American people.”
But isn’t the will of the American people also vested in the representatives we elect to Congress? Isn’t that the very idea of separation of powers? And shouldn’t this be something everyone knows?
That interview aired Feb. 6, the same day that the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Education held a hearing on a bill that would require high school students to take half a credit of civics instruction as part of their three-credit social studies requirement.
There is no currently no requirement for civics instruction in Wisconsin’s schools, though students now have to pass a civics test in order to graduate.
There is ample evidence that Americans lack knowledge about their own government and that, in turn, leads to disengagement. Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie), one of the bill’s co-authors, noted at the hearing that fewer than two-thirds of Americans could name the three branches of government in the 2024 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey.
Also at the hearing, co-author Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) submitted testimony arguing that students need to “know and understand” their rights and freedoms in order to cherish and protect them and, in order to hold government and elected officials accountable: “To do that, we must have a basic understanding of the framework of government and how the three independent branches of government work as a check and balance against each other.”
That would seem a pretty basic tenet to teach, were it not for the fact that we are living in a time when the leader of the United States and many of his supporters appear eager to aggressively test those powers and political norms. So what’s a civics teacher to do?
UW-Madison education professor Jeremy Stoddard says teachers need to be straightforward in their approach, explore the historical record and what is in the Constitution, and have students examine what is going on today through that lens. “And try to ask that very question: If Congress has the power of the purse why are they not using that power now?”
One of the challenges of civics education is that in striving to be nonpartisan it in some cases becomes apolitical.
“A lot of the state standards still focus on an idealistic or textbook version of the roles and processes of government,” Stoddard says. “And when we look at how government actually functions today, that doesn’t help students to really understand what is going on in the world today. It doesn’t look at the role of lobbyists, or the role of organizations writing legislation.”
Ideally, he says, “in a civics or government class we’re engaging students in both helping them make sense of politics and the nature of how things work today — as messy as that is — as well as getting them to imagine how it could be.”
Stoddard co-created a simulation game called PurpleState for middle school students for that very purpose. Students assume the role of interns at a political communications firm where, through a series of exercises, they come to understand how these groups use media campaigns to engage and influence people.
He says the game helps familiarize students with their local and state political environments. They review local news sources to see how the publications reflect the views of people in different parts of the states on issues like gun control. And they take note of how much money is being spent on political advertising.
“Then,” Stoddard says, “we have them step back and reflect on that system and, looking at all the money that is being poured in by special interest groups, ask them if there is a better way to engage in issues they care about and, if so, what could that look like.”
Mark Drake, a social studies teacher at West Bend West High School, is perhaps one of the state’s most active and passionate teachers of civics. He’s taught classes on government, history, international relations and civics for the past 20 years, and advanced placement U.S. government and politics for the past 12. He’s also been a faculty advisor for Model United Nations and mock trial teams and, for the last four years, coached teams for the Wisconsin Civics Games, a statewide competition where high students test their knowledge of government. In 2023, the team Drake coached from West Bend won the competition.
“I am a fan of peaceful, participatory democracy,” he says. “There is so much vitriol out there. If we understand there are positive and peaceful ways to change our government and work together we can accomplish anything.”
As for how teachers might approach, for instance, Tom Tiffany’s take on congressional powers, he says that the beauty of the AP class he teaches is that students get to follow their government in real time so they don’t see government as stale.
“Our government is moving and evolving,” says Drake. “It’s not in the past tense.”
That said, Drake links most class content back to what he calls the “six pillars” of government: popular sovereignty, checks and balances, limited government, judicial review, federalism and, wait for it, the separation of powers.
This year, Drake is coaching four teams for the Wisconsin Civics Games. They are preparing now for the virtual playoffs, held April 9-10, with the finals in person May 2 at the state Capitol.
By then Wisconsin could have a new civics requirement on the books. The bill passed the state Assembly last month and is pending in the Senate.
There seems to be general support for the bill, though the vote in the Assembly was largely on partisan lines, with Democrats voting against. Some, like Stoddard, are concerned that the bill does not earmark funding for training or resources to meet the new mandate. Without additional money, he says, districts may end up with less powerful or effective civics instruction than what is possible.
Stoddard is enthusiastic that the bill stipulates that any civics class provide an “understanding of the process for effectively advocating before governmental bodies and officials.” But he would like the bill to take it one more step and require that students be taught “strategies for taking action within their local community on issues they care about.”
Those lessons can’t come fast enough. Maybe students will also learn that part of the role of the legislative branch is to provide a check on executive power, a lesson that some members of Congress seem to have missed.
