A doctor who wants to determine a patient's health will gather all kinds of data - temperature, blood pressure, pulse, weight, blood test results, and the like - to come up with an overall picture of how the patient is doing.
kind of did the same thing to determine the civic health of Texas. Bad news: this patient's not in good shape.
The Institute used data from the to determine how Texas stacks up on factors such as voter registration, voter turnout, one-on-one and online discussions about politics, volunteering, and donating to charity.
A couple of highlights... or lowlights... from the report:
*Texas ranked at the bottom of the list in 2010 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on voter turnout.
*Texas ranked 43rd in donating, 42nd in volunteering, and 37th in group membership.
believes the whole state suffers when only a few make the electoral choices for all. Which begs the questions: what would it take to get more people to the polls and participating in civic life?
You can click for a link to the full Texas Civic Health Index.
