I am Assemblymember Betty Karnette from the 54th District, representing Long Beach, San Pedro, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Island of Catalina. We thank you for being here today.

As a legislator who taught school for thirty years, I feel a unique responsibility to help improve student knowledge about our system of government and how it works.

And as a major supporter of both civics and the arts, I am very excited to see the amazing level of interest that this project has garnered statewide.

When I heard about this wonderful project sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, I was excited and eager to help promote it.

The best way to prepare students for the real world is to educate them from top-to-bottom on how their government operates out in the real world.

But civics education carries special importance for many reasons.

In California, we need well educated voters because our system of government is often determined by the average voter.

Voters in California go to the polls more often and have to vote on far more initiatives, bonds and referenda than voters in any other state.

More so than any other state, California’s system of government is only as strong as the voters who participate in the voting process.

Civics education also has great impact on voter turnout. Voters are far more likely to actually fill out their ballots when they understand the issues at stake. Therefore, civics education can provide us with better educated and better motivated voters.

And if we ever want to have a respectable level of voter turnout – especially among younger age groups that tend not to vote – it is absolutely essential that we peak voters interest before they are even old enough to vote.

As a parent, as a legislator and as a former teacher myself, I want to know that California’s next generation of leaders are fully educated on the strengths, weaknesses and nature of our governmental system as a whole.

I would like to close my comments by thanking the esteemed Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell for his interest in this project, his commitment to civics education in general and his pledge to deliver a high quality educational product to the parents and students in California.

I would like to especially thank Keri Doggett, Lisa Cleri Reale, the Constitutional Rights Foundation and the parents, educators and students across the state who jumped into this effort feet-first and made this ambitious program a reality.