The nation is awash in harmful civics ignorance these days, as verified by multiple national studies and as even a cursory visit to social media sites or talk radio demonstrates.

In 2019, for example, the Anenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania released a national survey showing that only 40% of adults could identify the federal government’s three branches.

And it’s not just a matter of ill-informed rhetoric. The Jan. 6 attack on Congress, as it attempted to carry out its constitutional duty to count certified election results, is a case of civics ignorance posing a threat to the republic itself.

Part of the problem is the decline of civics education in public schools. The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education found, for example, that 70% of high school seniors never had written a report or been challenged to solve a civics problem, and 30% never had engaged in a debate about government. It also found that, nationally, civics curricula are among the least supported in school budgets.

State Rep. Karen Boback, a Luzerne County Republican, has introduced a bill that would elevate civics education not simply as an academic subject but as an aspect of citizenship.

The bill would require students to pass a civics test, similar to the one that immigrants must pass to become citizens, to be eligible for graduation.

Ironically, the naturalization test asks questions that every native-born citizen should know, but many don’t, so immigrants end up as some of the nation’s best-informed citizens regarding civics.

The naturalization test asks questions such as: Why do some states have more Representatives than other states? Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government? What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?

Local school districts would be able to craft their own versions of the test, which students would be allowed to take as many times as necessary to achieve a passing grade.

The bill should pass. Civics education is not a burden, civics literacy is a requisite of a free and democratic society.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre/TNS