College Students Fail Civics Test

Quick: Who is the speaker of the House? Gold star if you identified Mike Johnson. Almost two-thirds of college students couldn’t.

With Gen Z expected to have a significant impact on the November elections, a new survey suggests this generation could use a refresher course on politics and history.

But at least they know who’s married to Jay-Z.

Ahead of the 2024 elections, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and College Pulse, a survey research and analytics company focused on college students, set out to determine if today’s college students have a solid grasp on politics and political history.

Although the survey report neglects to comment on the findings, the title says it all — “Losing America’s Memory 2.0: A Civic Literacy Assessment of College Students.”

Conducted in May and June of 2024, the survey reflects answers from more than 3,000 American undergraduates. Many of them, we might assume, aren’t history or political science majors.

To be fair, some of the questions border on the arcane. When was the current voting age of 18 established? Only 29% said 1971, the correct answer. A misguided 3% said 1787.

Should most students know which constitutional amendment protects against unreasonable bail and excessive fines? Half do (it’s the Eighth).

How about the requirement for ratifying a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Only a quarter correctly said approval by three-fourths of the states. How often does that occur? Three-fourths of the states can’t agree on anything.

And only 23% identified the Gettysburg Address as the source of the phrase Government of the people, by the people, for the people, though it’s easy to understand why some might attribute it to the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, two other possible answers listed.

But most should know who the president of the Senate is. It’s always the vice president. Only about a quarter of students knew the answer. That more people said Joe Biden (28%) than said Kamala Harris (27%) is downright frightening.

Only 40% correctly said senators serve six-year terms and representatives serve two. Less than a third know that the legislative branch has the power to declare war, while 3% said the Pentagon does.

A slight majority (53%) know that the speaker of the House becomes president if the sitting president and vice president leave office. Two percent, perhaps just for kicks and giggles, said that duty falls to the runner-up from the previous election. This individual did get the second-most votes, after all, so there’s logic buried in there somewhere.

Yet there’s hope for this young generation. Three-quarters know that Beyonce is married to Jay-Z (1% said Taylor Swift, as if), and 89% know that Jeff Bezos owns Amazon. One percent chose Alphabet as the answer, evidently assuming Bezos owns all the letters.

Why these questions were included in a survey about history and politics is anyone’s guess.

Toward the end of the survey were questions pertaining to political opinions.

One examined which types of expressions the government should be allowed to censor or punish. Almost three-quarters (70%) said threats of violence qualify. Other categories receiving significant votes were hate speech (53%), racial slurs (47%), overthrowing the government (42%), pornography (39%), and flag burning (32%).

So much for the First Amendment.

When asked which ideals constituted a core principle of American civic life, 68% said equality, and 64% said democracy. Only 22% said Republicanism.

Yet 14% identified imperialism, and 11% chose white supremacy. Notably, females (12%) were more likely than males (8%) to say white supremacy is a core American principle. Whether they were advocating this or suggesting it somehow defined American culture is unclear, though we might assume the latter.

In addition, more than half (53%) said they very often or somewhat often self-censor when discussing social and political issues with peers. Seventy percent of those who identify as Republican noted this.

Perhaps more troubling, 66% said they were somewhat or very unlikely to pursue a career in public service.

But wait. There’s actually something even more distressing. Overall, 57% of students said they would flee the country if the U.S. were invaded. More specifically, 71% of Democrats said this, as did 66% of females. Three in five males would stay and fight.

As the adage proclaims, When the going gets tough, the tough get going … to Canada.

On a more serious note, it’s difficult to draw conclusions about what these findings imply for the upcoming election. Issues with historical literacy probably aren’t new, and it would be instructive to compare these findings to those resulting from a more general survey of the American public.

People at all levels of sophistication can vote.

Will Gen Z? Given the pessimism embedded in some of these answers, one wonders if today’s youth will be motivated to vote. Or perhaps these attitudes reflect a desire to change the status quo, which could prompt a record turnout.

We’ll know soon enough.