Civic learning, and education's vital purpose to cultivate engaged and effective citizens, is a national imperative. Civic education is consistent with President Obama's goal of regaining competitiveness in the global marketplace, and it is consistent with the goal of increasing student achievement and closing achievement gaps. There's much more that the US Department of Education can do to create a climate that promotes the efforts of colleges and universities to advance civic learning and democratic engagement. The nine steps presented in "Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy" are a great start: (1) to convene and catalyze schools and postsecondary institutions in order to increase and enhance the quality of civic learning and engagement; (2) to identify additional civic indicators; (3) to identify promising practices in civic learning and democratic engagement, and encourage further research to learn what works; (4) to look for ways to leverage federal investments and public-private partnerships in support of civic learning; (5) to encourage community-based work-study placements under the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program; (6) to encourage public service careers among college students and graduates; (7) to support civic learning for a well-rounded K-12 curriculum; (8) to engage historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and Asian American/Pacific Islander-serving Institutions in a national dialogue to identify best practices in civic learning and engagement; and (9) to highlight and promote student and family participation in educational programs and policies at the federal and local levels.