Many students graduate from high school today without a figurative passing knowledge of civics. As of Jan. 1, Tennessee high school students will have to a have a literal passing knowledge of civics to graduate.
No more can “Kennedy” be the answer to the president who served during World War I, “Puerto Rico” be the reply to the territory the United States bought from France in 1803, or “the Pentagon” be the response to where “Congress meets.”
Passing the test will not be a requirement for graduation, but students will have to take the test over and over until they receive a passing grade – or until they are ushered out the door with a civics-less diploma.
The goal of the 2015 law, whose primary sponsor was state Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Hixson, was to shore up students’ abysmal knowledge of their government.
The bill as written would have kept students from receiving their diplomas unless they passed the test. And by passing, students only would have had to have correct 60 percent of whatever number was posed of the 100 questions from the civics portion of the United States citizenship test administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.