Future of the First Amendment 2006 Key Findings Part I – Knight Foundation
Learning and Impact

Future of the First Amendment 2006 Key Findings Part I

Conducted by David Yalof and Kenneth Dautrich, New England Survey Research Associates

Key Findings

1. Students in 2006 are far more likely than they were two years ago to take classes dealing with First Amendment issues. More teachers are teaching First Amendment classes.

2. Today more students support First Amendment protections for news media. And students are more likely than two years ago to favor the right of high school students to report in their own newspapers without school officials’ approval.

3. At the same time, however, more students today think the First Amendment, as a whole, goes too far in the rights it guarantees.

4. The same mixed results applied to teachers. More teachers understand and appreciate First Amendment rights in 2006. But more of them also admit that schools are not doing a good job educating students on the First Amendment.

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