A Naturalization Test for All Americans: “You can name the Three Stooges. Can you name your three members of Congress?”
Every high school student should be required to pass the *same* 128-question civics test required of legal immigrants to become citizens. The fact that this is controversial in America is a damning indictment of our Republic’s health. See test questions below & try it yourself. pic.twitter.com/Hgqdv7FsYT
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 23, 2023
Many immigration professors no doubt have thought about the irony that, to become U.S. citizens, immigrants must pass a test on U.S. civics that tests knowledge that many Americans may not know. Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe highlights a presidential candidate’s suggestion that U.S. citizens should be required to know basics about U.S. civics:
“Vivek Ramaswamy, the successful high-tech entrepreneur running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is a long shot whom relatively few Americans can correctly identify. But one of his campaign themes — that all Americans should be able to correctly identify basic facts about American government, law, and history — is excellent and deserves to be embraced by candidates across the board.
`Every high school student should be required to pass the same 128-question civics test required of legal immigrants to become citizens,’ Ramaswamy said recently on Twitter. To audiences on the campaign trail he has made the case that `young people do not value a country that they simply inherit. We value a country that we have a stake in creating, in building, in knowing something about.’
To that end, he suggests a straightforward reform: In addition to passing English, math, and science, kids in school should have to know the answers to the same list of questions that immigrants are tested on as part of the naturalization process.”