House Majority Leader Gerald McCormickState Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, thinks folks ought to be able to pass a basic civics test before they graduate from high school.
He’s right.
The test is composed of the same questions legal immigrants are asked to pass in order to become United States citizens. If natural born U.S. citizens don’t know the very basics about their government, history and geography, how can we ask those who want to come to the country legally to know those things?
McCormick’s bill filed for the upcoming session of the state legislature — sponsored in the state Senate by Majority Leader Mark Norris — would mandate that, starting Jan. 1, 2016, “a student shall pass a civics test composed of the one hundred (100) questions that are set forth within the civics test administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to persons seeking to become naturalized citizens.”
For students to pass the written test, they would only have to get what is considered a failing grade in most school systems — 60 percent. And you can take the test as many times as you need to in order to pass it. But you must pass it in order to get a high school diploma.