Civics Crash

Most Americans can't pass their own country's citizenship test:

The U.S. citizenship test comprises 100 questions, ranging from “What is the supreme law of the land?” to “Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?” Immigrants applying for citizenship must correctly answer six out of ten randomly selected questions, a pass rate of 60 percent. Yet, surveys repeatedly show that native-born Americans perform worse than foreign-born residents seeking citizenship through naturalization. The 2018 survey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation revealed just how pervasive the problem is. Over half of the respondents couldn’t identify the three branches of government, and 37 percent didn’t know the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Among younger generations, the situation is even more dire. High school students, who should be learning the basics of American history and civics, are failing at staggering rates. According to The Daily Signal, the majority of high schoolers couldn’t identify what the Constitution does, the reasons behind the Revolutionary War, or the functions of government institutions. If these trends persist, future generations may lack the knowledge necessary to engage meaningfully in the democratic process.

We already seem to be headed in that direction...