How one South LA school teaches the ‘nitty-gritty’ work of democracy

When Eduardo Mira started his senior year at Ánimo Pat Brown Charter High School, he thought politics was a “fool’s game.”

“All I saw from the media was just negativity and division and, like, political violence,” Mira said. “Nothing good, but now I do see the beauty in it.”

Mira credits government and economics teacher Joel Snyder with helping connect the problems he sees in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood surrounding the school, including pollution and sidewalks littered with dog feces, to potential solutions in local government.

“We focus on some of the nitty-gritty work of democracy that's not as election-focused,” Snyder said of his curriculum. “Then hopefully we are able to turn those skills into an argument for why their legislators matter, which translates to voting in the future.”

For example, Snyder asks local elected officials and their representatives to visit his class and his students have traveled to the State Capitol. Last school year, his classes participated in a program where community members 16-and-up got to vote on how Los Angeles County spent $500,000.

However, research on civics education indicates classes like Snyder’s are the exception, not the norm at many schools.

Researchers who study youth civic engagement, including Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC, point to a lack of related education as one factor in persistently low youth voter turnout.

“[Students] turn 18, and all of a sudden we magically expect them to not only know how to vote, but to think it's important and want to vote,” Romero said.

Schools struggle to teach civics

American schools are struggling to teach the basics of democracy.

One indication is that students' proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress civics test is dropping— only 1 in 5 eighth-graders met the standard in 2022, the most recent results available. Students’ civics understanding is also declining globally.

California requires students to take a one-semester American government and civics course to graduate, but the quality of the class and student engagement varies. For example, schools that enroll low-income students are less likely to offer related extracurricular activities, including student media and government.

In 2020, the California State Board of Education created an award for students who “demonstrate excellence in civic learning,” in response to legislation signed in 2017.

In L.A. County, about 3.7% of graduating seniors earned the State Seal of Civic Engagement in the 2024-2025 school year compared to about 5% of graduates across California.

“We somewhere along the line disconnected the notion of high schools and K through 12 schools as like, bedrocks of teaching democracy and democratic practice,” said Snyder, the social studies teacher in South L.A. “I think a lot of that nationally is a real fear of folks looking or feeling like they're being partisan.”

More than a third of teachers who responded to a recent survey by nonprofit iCivics reported changing or removing lesson plans because of the current political climate and 1 in 5 have considered leaving their job.

“Whatever we can do to support teachers to feel comfortable and safe to prioritize talking about civics period … I think is really important,” said Romero, of USC.

Even Snyder, who's been a teacher for more than two decades and written publicly about his approach to civics education, paused during our interview to consider whether to share that as part of his class, students register to vote. He estimated about 1,000 students have registered to vote in his class since California started allowing students as young as 16 to sign up to be automatically added to the voter rolls at 18. An LAist review of the state’s preregistration program found relatively few eligible teens participate.

School as a ‘primary connector of American democracy’

Snyder said the 2016 election marked a shift in his approach to teaching civics.

“The last decade has been a lot of thinking of myself as the primary connector of American democracy to not only my students, but to their families in our broader community,” Snyder said.

Residents of the Florence-Firestone neighborhood are primarily Latino and Black and about 40% were born outside the United States. More than half of adults have not graduated from high school, according to data compiled by L.A. County.

Eduardo Mira, 17, said Snyder's class changed how he viewed politics. "Now's my chance to intertwine with politics because eventually politics will intertwine with your life,” Mira said. “I know that every single choice really does matter and can affect your life.”

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Jacky Hernandez, 18, said homelessness and rent are top of mind as she thinks about voting for the first time this year. “We have all these houses, but people can't afford to rent or buy a house in this economy right now.” Hernandez said.

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About five times a year Snyder asks students to start conversations with family members about class topics from the principles of democracy to the three branches of government and the legal immigration process.

Mira, the graduating senior, said as a result he’s talked about politics with both conservative and liberal members of his family.

 ”You'll be surprised by how much Democrats want the economy to get better and how much Republicans want to increase education too,” Mira said. “It's really engaging. It shows that we really do care for the same issues, but we're just divided. We're not united.”

Mira, and another senior Jacky Hernandez, said discussions about current events are part of what makes Snyder’s classes so interesting.

“ I feel like sometimes in certain classes, we just get, like, packets or books and just told, ’Oh, just read it and look over it,’” said Hernandez, who’s taking AP government. “But we're not getting told about, like, what's actually happening in the current times that does affect our future.”

Both remembered talking about the No Kings protests and Charlie Kirk’s killing in class. The latter topic contributed to the investigation of hundreds of educators nationwide, including in California.

“It really did get me engaged and really made me realize, like, ‘wow, politics really is everywhere,’” Mira said.

He and Hernandez also signed up as student poll workers for the upcoming election.

“Honestly, I didn't care about voting [before],” Hernandez said. “I didn't see the importance of it. I just thought it was like, ‘oh, you find a candidate, you pick what you like, and that's what you do.’”

Now she feels differently. Hernandez said homelessness and expensive rent will be top of mind when she votes for the first time in June’s primary.

“We do make a difference,” Hernandez said. “Eventually we are gonna take the role of the older people and our voice does matter.”