Year after year, politicians - Democrats and Republicans alike - have sat on their hands while schools have become reading, writing, arithmetic factories, abdicating their mission of preparing young people for their democracy.

History and social studies have moved down the educational totem pole, losing out to subjects that come with a high-stakes test. Civics education, once a mainstay of the American school experience, is now just a quaint idea, the victim of massive disinvestment.

This should make all of us deeply concerned for the future of our democracy.

In the 1960s, the typical American student was offered courses in government, democracy and civics, where you learned about citizenship in a democracy and the rights and responsibilities that come with it.

Today, formal civics has all but vanished from the high school curriculum in favor of passive courses in "government." In New York State today, for example, a one-course Participation in Government class constitutes our civics education requirement. And every teacher I've spoken to says the curriculum leaves out the "Participation" part.

Where does that leave us? Only 6% of eighth-graders nationwide are able to describe two ways that countries benefit from having a constitution. A little over a third of young Americans can't tell you the length of a term of a member of the House of Representatives.

Is it any surprise that fewer than one in two 18-to-24-year-olds bothered to vote in the 2004 presidential election nationally, and only 45% - down from 58% in 1972 - voted in New York?

This is a tragedy. To become invested citizens, students need not only to know how a bill becomes a law and how many branches of government there are - and far too few know either - they also need a deep and practical understanding of where they fit in a representative democracy like ours. The fact that only 9% of American 12th-graders nationally could list two ways that democratic society benefits from the active participation of its citizens should be a wakeup call to policymakers everywhere.

Yes, there are educators who get it, like New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who told me that, "Civics was a key part of my education in public school in New York City. It remains a critical part of what students learn in New York City schools."

But when it comes down to it, can you really picture Mayor Bloomberg telling the chancellor, "I need graphs and charts showing how many students understand their government. Sure, I know it's not part of No Child Left Behind, and there is no standardized test, but get it done"?

The question answers itself. Generations of politicians have cared more about building their own legacies than building the legacy of a healthy democracy.

We need to get serious about civics education again, teaching the history of our democracy while forcing young people into their communities to see government in action - meeting with their elected officials, understanding local problems and debating potential solutions. And policymakers need to hold school systems accountable for the results, just as they do for math scores.

If we're ever going to get out of the dangerous hole we're in, in which we as a people are continually less informed and more cynical about our government, politicians are going to have to spend less time kissing babies and more time planning for those babies to grow up into engaged citizens.