About Principle
You were told you live in a democracy, but no one showed you how the system actually works.
Principle closes that gap. We turn the news you already read into civic education, connecting each story to the laws, agencies, and tools underneath it. You learn how government functions and how your voice moves the needle.
US civics education is severely underfunded
Schools cut civics classes for decades. Civic knowledge declined, and ordinary people got locked out of understanding how power actually works.
Understanding government changes everything
When you understand how government works, you participate more and take action. Learn the system, and you're more likely to use it.
Why Principle exists
Your kid has special education services. You're a senior protecting yourself from scams. Your family relies on consumer protections. You see agencies in the news, like the Department of Education administering $15 billion in special education funding1 or the CFPB protecting seniors from fraud ($3.4 billion in senior fraud losses in 2023 alone)3, and you don't understand what they actually do. So when politicians promise to dismantle them, most people don't see the stakes. By the time they realize what they lost, it's too late. The speech therapy is gone. The protective oversight is eliminated. Seniors are vulnerable to scams.
This knowledge gap didn't happen by accident. Decades of underfunded schools and budget cuts eliminated civics courses. The system doesn't teach how it works because people can't fight back if they don't understand the game.
The day ordinary people understand how power works is the day things change. You'll see regulatory threats coming. You'll know which agency protects your family and which representative to hold accountable. You'll understand the trade-offs and protect what matters. Students taught about voting in high school already vote at 7 percentage points higher rates in actual elections.2
So we're building civic education that works. We connect the news you already read to the civic tools beneath it: laws, agencies, courts, budgets. We use plain language and real examples to give you your power back.
Sources
- Cutting the U.S. Department of Education Harms Millions of Students with Disabilities (New America)
- Youth Who Learned About Voting in High School More Likely to Become Informed and Engaged Voters (CIRCLE)
- Elder Fraud Report 2023 (FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center)
- How Dismantling the Education Department Could Affect Disabled Students (Urban Institute)
We're not funded by venture capital or government. We're built by people who believe democracy is worth fighting for. Your participation is how this grows, whether that's learning, sharing, testing, or telling us what we're getting wrong.