Arizona Enacts Law Requiring Students To Pass Civics Test To Graduate

by JASmius



1) They ought to call it "The Douglas V. Gibbs Act";

2) That Arizona has enacted a U.S. civics graduation requirement is the good news; that they are the only State have thus far done so is the bad news.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, until Arizona acted this week, there was no requirement throughout the length and breadth of socialized education that primary or secondary students even be taught the founding principles and constitutional structure - or simply the U.S. Constitution, period - of the country in which they ostensibly live.

That, however, may be changing over the next couple of years, of which the Grand Canyon State is now the vanguard:

Arizona became the first state in the nation on Thursday to enact a law requiring high school students to pass the U.S. citizenship test on civics before graduation, giving a boost to a growing nationwide effort to boost civics education.

Both the Arizona House and Senate quickly passed the legislation on just the fourth day of the legislative session, and newly elected Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed it into law Thursday evening.

As heartening as this development it, it isn't all wine and roses:

The swift action in Arizona comes as states around the country take up similar measures. Arizona’s law requires high school students to correctly answer 60 of 100 questions on the civics portion of the test new citizens must pass.

60%?  Couldn't the threshold have been set at least a little higher?  The CPA exam in most States sets the bar of passage at 70%, after all.

But one step at a time, I suppose.

The test is being pushed nationally by the Arizona-based Joe Foss Institute, which has set a goal of having all fifty states adopt it by 2017, the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. The institute says legislatures in fifteen States are expected to consider it this year.

All "red" States, I'm assuming.  There's no possibility of any "blue" State legislature considering something so "rightwing extremist" as requiring a basic knowledge of the United States Constitution in order to earn a high school diploma or GED.  That's what the Left exists and lives to stamp out.

But that can't stop the virus of constitutionalism from spreading.  Or, to elevate a phrase of Palpatine's, "All is proceeding as That Constitution Guy has foreseen."

BTW way, Governor Ducey and friends, if y'all are looking for useful textbooks in the neoinculcation of American civics in Arizona classrooms, might I make a couple of suggestions?  Economical and educational at the same time.  Can't beat that blue plate special with a baseball bat, even if I was their editor.