EMPOWER

Every generation, it seems, worries that the next one is not as politically active as it should be. But, in recent decades, a new concern has emerged: “gaps” in civic knowledge and participation in the US  and many countries are along lines of race and class. According to a number of researchers, youth from low-income and rural Communities score lower on measures of civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and political action than their , wealthier and urban peers. Harvard’s Meira Levinson labeled these disparities the “civic achievement gap”. More recently, she and others have begun referring instead to the “civic empowerment gap,” stressing that these disparities are rooted in unequal access to quality civic education opportunities.

These findings are highly disturbing. They suggest that Youths and women are being systematically denied the education and exposure they need to be effective participants in political life.

People who are poor  are demonstrably less likely to
develop traditional civic skills via education, the workplace, or participation in
voluntary associations—three of the primary venues in which individuals have the opportunity to develop and practice communication, analysis, organization, and
leadership skills relevant to civic and political participation. This is because they are likely to leave school sooner, to have attended worse schools, to have lower status
jobs, and to participate less in voluntary associations. Churches may ameliorate, but certainly do not solve, this civic skills opportunity gap

The bottom line is this . The demographic mostly affected by this disparity are Youths, Women, The Poor, Uneducated, Disabled in the Society and communities in the rural areas.