This — not race or rhetoric or COVID-19 protocols — is the No. 1 problem in education

School board elections in Kansas and across the nation Tuesday were afire like never before, thanks to anger over COVID-19 masks, how the history of race is taught, and the National Association of School boards likening upset parents to domestic terrorists.

But such issues will quickly pass. What won’t go away, and may only get worse with time, is the absolutely horrifying lack of civic knowledge among our young. Exhibit A: The Wichita State University Student Senate voted recently not to grant official campus recognition to a conservative student club called Turning Point USA.

Although the WSU student Supreme Court quickly and wisely overturned the decision, ruling it blatant and unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, it remains that a majority of WSU student senators think it’s constitutional or somehow OK to ban clubs due to their political beliefs.

That, friends, is the stuff tyranny is made of. And it’s what really ought to send parents and other concerned citizens streaming into school board meetings.

How could our education system have failed so miserably that college students have so little regard for the First Amendment, not to mention their own Student Bill of Rights and Student Government Association nondiscrimination policy?

“The Senate chose to deny the rights of those they do not agree with,” the WSU student Supreme Court actually ruled previously — in a 2017 case in which senators rejected recognition of yet another conservative club, Young Americans for Liberty.

“There is no reason that the court should need to intervene a second time,” the justices wrote this time.

Oh, yes there is. It’s a ghastly lack of knowledge of, or commitment to, our most basic freedoms — the freedom of thought, speech and association, not to mention access to public accommodations: Nonrecognition of student clubs literally means leaving them out in the cold, since status as a Recognized Student Organization is necessary for free usage of campus facilities.

This, the majority of WSU student senators wanted to do because, as one put it, “I don’t agree with the organization’s purpose.”

Where, in their vast educational journey, did such students not hear about the Constitution and the First Amendment?

In 2015, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education cited the Kansas Board of Regents as among the biggest threats to free speech on campus nationwide. Thankfully, the board assures me it “believes strongly in protecting students’ right to full and open inquiry and discourse and the robust exchange of ideas and perspectives on college campuses.” It even issued a statement to that effect in March.

I believe the board. The question is, do students?

Jim Cusser, a former adjunct professor of American government at Johnson County Community College, says there’s been a decided deterioration over the years in students’ critical thinking skills and their interest in, and knowledge of, our form of government.

“It’s pretty pathetic what they don’t know and, too often, don’t care about,” Cusser says. “And these people are going to be our voters. It’s tough to be a supporter of democracy if you understand the level of ignorance about civics and, for that matter, history. I’ve had students who take home essays and they will misspell ‘American’ and forget to capitalize it.”

As for teaching critical thinking? “It’s almost impossible to do,” Cusser says. “You never get around to any general opinion about your rights and duties under the Constitution. It’s always, ‘Well, I think this …’ And they don’t have a lot of deeper thinking. It’s a combination of laziness and what we’ve taught students. These students aren’t good writers, and they don’t think beyond themselves.”

Cusser supports House Bill 2039, proposed by Kansas state Rep. Steve Huebert, Republican of Valley Center, requiring passage of a civics test to graduate high school. The bill has gone nowhere. It needs to pass.

There’s a deep, dark canyon between the mechanisms of our government — the things that lay out our basic freedoms — and what students know or care about them.

Note to concerned parents: That is the No. 1 problem facing American education.