Civic health can be evaluated statistically through measures such as voter registration and turnout but also takes into account the overall activity of citizens in their communities. That can fall under several categories like volunteering, writing letters to the editor, or participating in a service organization.

The civic health index, first conducted in 2011 and now in its fifth edition, is sponsored by the Indiana Bar Foundation, the Indiana Supreme Court, the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, the National Conference on Citizenship, Indiana University Northwest, IUPUI, and IU’s Center for Representative Government and O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
In a news conference releasing the 2021 index, Chuck Dunlap, president of the Indiana Bar Foundation, mentioned how civic education is important for the improvement of the state’s civic health.

“The time spent in schools teaching civics is just not adequate,” Dunlap said. “It’s been steadily decreasing over the years as well.”

The 2019 report recommended creating a civic education task force to improve instruction for Hoosiers, a step which the state has taken in the two years since. In 2021, the Indiana General Assembly enacted a new law making civics education a required class in Indiana middle schools and creating a 15-member Indiana Civic Education Commission to determine and oversee curriculum.

Bill Moreau, president of the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, discussed how another of the recommendations from the 2019 report—taking the steps necessary to move Indiana from the bottom toward the top of state rankings for voter turnout—has not come to fruition. Indiana ranked 41st in 2016 and fell to 46th in 2020.
Moreau suggested that the state’s ranking might be higher if Indiana had followed the examples of other states that have enacted measures such as automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, unrestricted absentee voting, independent redistricting commissions, and mail-in voting.
“Indiana has consistently ranked among the states with the most restrictive voting laws,” said Moreau. “We have a very, very long way to go before we as a state capture our place among the top 10 states for voter registration.”
Retired Chief Justice Randall Shepard mentioned how voting has changed throughout the years, recalling when the process was so community-based that citizens could vote in neighborhood schools “or in someone’s garage.’’

“We decided to shrink the number of polling places in our state, one county at a time,” Shepard said. “That made a difference.”

Ellen Szarleta, professor at Indiana University Northwest and the primary author of the report, said Hoosiers rank higher on other measures of civic activity, such as sharing their beliefs via social media, an area where Indiana ranked 12th among the states.

“That is one of our strengths if we look at civic awareness,” Szarleta said.

FOOTNOTE: Alexa Shrake is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.