Susie Gomes of League of Women Voters testifies on K-12 civics

Okay.

Last but not least.

Good afternoon.

Oh, my name is Susie Gomes, and I am chair of the City Affairs Committee at the League of Women Voters of New York City.

A brief story.

When my children were in preschool, I began teaching them to solve for X.

I know.

At first, they gave me quizzical faces, sort of like many of you might be, asking, what's X, mommy?

I said, it's whatever you need to figure out.

If you have two cookies and need one more for a friend, how many total will you have?

The point, besides me being a math geek, is that math is everywhere in our life, and math is a block of concepts that build on each other.

The same applies to civics.

It shows up everywhere in our lives as a daily part of our world.

Starting in grade school, the game that's played on the playground is the group's majority decision, and that's democracy.

The group that chooses a spokesperson to beg the teacher for no homework over the weekend, that's representative government.

And the child and or their adult who helps their neighbor with their groceries, that's community engagement, tying the child that much closer to the community.

Being exposed to these concepts throughout grade school

allows elementary schoolers to know what it is to be a member of their school community.

Middle schoolers to better understand the significance of their vote when they're asked to elect a student council government, how they are choosing, and what their representatives should do for them.

This can be the beginning of elected officials'accountability.

By the time these students enter high school, they're prepared to integrate the concepts they've learned with how all levels of government operate and their role in democracy as voters and community members.

But it is important that these subconscious concepts are explicitly taught.

As well as understood implicitly.

The League of Women Voters of New York City supports Civics for All in every grade,

K through 12, because starting young and consistently integrates civics into classroom lessons helps create a more socially aware and civically engaged community of New Yorkers.

The League also obviously supports Seal of Civic Readiness across New York and New York City students.

It would be curious to see if the students that participate and have participated in this program to date

are more civically knowledgeable and expect to participate in civics and voting going forward more than their counterparts who are not in the programs.

This would give you empirical data that would help you as you roll out the program and anticipate rolling it out.

And help you to create the environment that you need to do as you move forward.

And we can hopefully move the needle of voting participation, which I will say the league is really pushing for in this world.

We've talked about today.

Getting people engaged, especially young people, with it's going to be their world.

We're going to be okay.

Member Dinowitz, you're younger than me.

You're in the back in my day.

I can say way back in my day.

I'm going to be okay, but it's the future.

They need to own it, and they need to know why they're going to own it.

Thank you.