Greater Seattle's 2010 Civic Health Index mirrors this assessment. It portrays a picture of civic health that is bright and inspiring. When it comes to numerous core indicators of civic participation and service, our community is a national leader. Greater Seattle rates at least ten percentage points higher than the national average in volunteerism, group association, social connectedness on the Internet, philanthropy, and non–electoral political acts. (Figure 1)

There are many interrelated reasons for this success: prosperity, the presence of so many industry leaders known for entrepreneurial innovation, a strong culture of philanthropy and service, a sophisticated and diverse arts community, and a strong, shared environmental ethic. But the single most important attribute predicting greater Seattle's leadership in civic vitality is its highly educated populace.

The Executive Summary of the 2010 Civic Health Assessment reports that Americans with more education dominate civic engagement. 2 Compared to those who didn't nish high school, graduates are more than twice as likely to vote or belong to a group and three times as likely to volunteer or work with neighbors to solve problems. Those with bachelor's degrees are nearly ve times more likely to volunteer than high school dropouts.

Fifty–four percent of adults in the City of Seattle have a college degree, the highest in the nation and 21 percentage points above the national average of 33%. 3

But educational attainment ndings reveal dramatic gaps between those with and those without a college education in greater Seattle, as well as dramatic differences in the quality of education in Washington's public schools—not only district to district, but also neighborhood to neighborhood. In King County, only 71% of students—and less than 50% of black and Latino students— graduate from high school with their peers. 4 Exacerbating these disparities, in February 2010, King County District Court found that Washington State isn't living up to its constitutional mandate to provide adequate funding for its public schools. 5

Inadequate investment in public education and tolerance for disparities in educational access, quality, and success are a certain recipe for civic decay.

The civic vitality we are trumpeting in this report—in volunteering, philanthropy, group participation and leadership, solving problems with neighbors, and political expression—simply cannot be sustained if our community does not ensure equitable, high–quality education for all our children from early childhood through college.

The rewards of doing so create a multiplier effect. Not only does educational attainment yield engaged citizens, new studies reveal the reciprocal is true, too: “The importance of civic engagement transcends charitable acts of kindness—the skill development, increased content knowledge, and self empowerment resulting from civic engagement activities foster the necessary confidence and skills for success in higher education and the workforce.” 6

When we invest in education, we create an engaged citizenry. When we teach civic skills and provide inclusive invitations to community service, we spur educational attainment. Supporting that reciprocity is how greater Seattle earned its current civic and economic vitality. Expanding it will ensure that our region continues to thrive.

REPORT CONCLUSIONS
1. Each act of community engagement generates another.
2. Greater Seattle's national leadership in civic vitality stems from many assets. Chief among them is our residents' high degree of educational attainment.
3. The way to sustain and expand our civic leadership is to support educational access and success for all our residents, from early childhood through college graduation. Special emphasis should be placed on teaching civic skills.
4. Existing disparities and underinvestment in educational quality undermine our civic fabric. To maintain greater Seattle's civic vitality, these dangerous decits must be remediated with particular attention to low–income and minority youth and new immigrants.