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posted by martyb on Thursday October 04 2018, @09:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the 19-percent dept.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation reports:

Just a third of Americans can pass a multiple choice "U.S. Citizenship Test", fumbling over such simple questions as the cause of the cold war or naming just one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for.

And of Americans 45 and younger, the passing rate is a tiny 19 percent, according to a survey done for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Worse: The actual test only requires that 60 percent of the answers be correct. In the survey, just 36 percent passed.

Among the embarrassing errors uncovered in the survey of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test and conducted by Lincoln Park Stragtegies:

  • 72 percent of respondents either incorrectly identified or were unsure of which states were part of the 13 original states.
  • 24 percent could correctly identify one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for, with 37 percent believing he invented the lightbulb.
  • 12 percent incorrectly thought WWII General Dwight Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War.
  • 2 percent said the Cold War was caused by climate change.

Also at Sputnik and The Tri-City Herald


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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday October 05 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Friday October 05 2018, @03:19PM (#744641)

    Which part, exactly?

    There are various amendments where you can't be denied a vote because of race (15th), gender (19th), poll tax (24th), and age >18 (26th)...but it doesn't say anything about an IQ test.

    Maybe the 14th is most relevant here:

    Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

    Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male [presumably any, now] inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age [18, now], and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

    Note that "being a dumbass" is not listed as one of the reasons it's illegal to deny someone a vote. Is voting considered a privilege? Privileges are rights that can be revoked, and you can lose your right to vote if you're a felon, so yes?

    Or maybe there's something in one of those Civil Rights Acts from the 1960s, which apparently modify the Constitution. TIL

    --

    So in conclusion I'd buy that you can't require a history test, but I'm not entirely sure where to point to where it says so.

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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday October 05 2018, @03:22PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Friday October 05 2018, @03:22PM (#744645)
    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"