On Thursday, Arizona became the first state to enact a law that requires high school students to pass a U.S. citizenship test on civics, in order to graduate.
According toย KPHO Phoenix,ย the bill was approved in aย โswift action by the Arizona Legislature,โ which comes as states around the country โtake up similar measures.โ
NBC News reported that law โrequires high school students to correctly answer 60 of 100 questions on the civics portion of the U.S. citizenship test,โ and that the testย is โbeing pushed nationallyโย by the Joe Foss Institute, which has โset a goal of having all 50 states adopt it by 2017, the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.โ
According to the Associated Press,ย the Foss Institute, which has the motto โPatriotism Matters,โ created a civics institute to โpromote the test to state legislatures,โ with the hope that students would be โbetter prepared to be engaged citizens,โ when they increased their understandingย of government.
Republican Governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, who is in favor of the bill, released a statement on Monday, urging Congress to pass the bill.
โThese are our children, and not long from now, it will be time for them to vote on who sits in your chairs and who stands at this podium,โ Ducey said.
According to NBC News, Senator David Bradley was the only Democrat on the education committee who opposed the bill, and he claimed that passing the legislation would โdo nothing to make good citizens,โ and would just be an extra cost to the state.
Steve Yarbrough, theย Republican Senate Majority Leader, who is in favor of the bill, said that while requiring students to pass the civics test is not a โsilver bullet,โ it is a โsmall step forward.โ
โI think we need to encourage the people of America to become more aware of the values of America,โ said Yarbrough.ย โHow can we expect them to protect the principles on which this country was founded, if we are not preparing them for that task right now?โ
Rachel Blevins is a Journalist, Blogger, Media and Communication Student at Texas Tech University, and Writer for BenSwann.com. ย Original article can be seen HERE.
