Bill to require high school students to pass civics test to graduate


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah legislators and business leaders announced an education initiative Wednesday designed to create more "civically informed" high school graduates.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, and Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, announced they will sponsor a Utah Civics Education Initiative bill that would have high school students pass a U.S. civics test in order to qualify for graduation or an equivalent.

"The Civics Education Initiative is an important step in helping keep what our Founding Fathers set up," Jonathan Johnson, chairman of the board of directors of Overstock.com, told legislators gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday during a Constitution Day celebration.

Utah is one of seven states launching the initiative Wednesday, 227 years after the Constitutional Convention delegates signed the U.S. Constitution.

"The legislation is not burdensome for schools to implement. Likewise, it is not onerous on students. In order to graduate or receive a high school equivalency certificate, students must score only 60 percent on the test. And, they may take the test as many times as necessary," Johnson wrote in an opinion column published in Wednesday's Deseret News.

This initiative is headed by the Joe Foss Institute.


"The Civics Education Initiative is an important step in helping keep what our Founding Fathers set up." Jonathan Johnson, chairman of the board of directors of Overstock.com

About 150 people were sworn in as citizens in Utah Wednesday. As part of their naturalization test, they were required to answer six of 10 questions — pulled from 100 potential questions — about United States history and government correctly. There is a 91 percent pass rate for applicants, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, compared to just 4 percent of high school graduates in Arizona who passed.

Researchers at the Goldwater Institute in Arizona administered a similar 10-question test to students in Arizona public schools and only 3.5 percent of students answered at least six questions correctly. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs reported similar results.

"I would love to see young people, boys and girls, become more engaged in our system of government and better comprehend the importance of 'we the people,'" said retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a video backing the initiative.

Other supporters include actor Joe Mantegna, Pulitzer-winning journalist Carl Bernstein and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Want to know if you could pass the citizenship test? Visit uscis.gov.

Related links

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahPoliticsEducationFamily
Whitney Evans

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast