KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The U.S. Census Bureau is beginning a
new education program in schools.
U.S. Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke today announced the, “2010 Census: It’s about Us,” program.
It’s created and designed to educate kindergarten through 12th grade students about the importance of the census and it’s role in American democracy.
Schools can use online lesson plans to teach mapping, data literacy and civic responsibility.
Once every 10 years, a count is taken of everyone living in the United States, and is federally mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
The Census Bureau is contracting with Scholastic, a global children’s publishing education and media company to develop the teaching materials.
Census data are used to distribute congressional seats to states, to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds to local and state and tribal governments each year and to make decisions about what community services to provide.
The U.S. Census Bureau will provide 118-thousand schools across the country.
In addition, 45-million handouts with census-related activities have been sent home with elementary and middle school students.
There are three goals of the Census In Schools program: Increasing Mail Response, Improving accuracy and improving cooperation with enumerators.
