Wednesday Sept. 17 marked the official U.S. Constitution Day, but a new survey conducted and released to commemorate that day shows the majority of Americans may not know basic facts about their government and founding documents.
The survey, conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), polled 1,416 adults and found only 36 percent could name all three branches of the U.S. government - executive, legislative and judicial. And according to the APPC survey, a whopping 35 percent couldn't even name a single branch of government.
Only 27 percent knew it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto, according to the survey, which was conducted from July 8 to July 14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.06 percent.
When asked a slightly more difficult question - "Which party has the most members in the House of Representatives?" - 38 percent of respondents correctly said Republicans were the majority, while 17 percent responded with Democrats, and 44 percent said they didn't know (Up from 27 percent who said they didn't know in 2011, APPC adds).
"Although surveys reflect disapproval of the way Congress, the President and the Supreme Court are conducting their affairs, the Annenberg survey demonstrates that many know surprisingly little about these branches of government," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the APPC, in its press release. "This survey offers dramatic evidence of the need for more and better civics education."
To combat the lack of education regarding fairly basic and fundamental topics relating to how the U.S. government operates, APPC and 25 other nonpartisan organizations, including the Library of Congress and the U.S. Courts, announced the launch of the Civics Renewal Network, which provides free online classroom resources for civics education.
Additional groups like the Civics Education Initiative are introducing legislation in several states aimed at improving civics education in high schools by requiring students to pass similar tests that immigrants are required to pass prior to receiving citizenship, said the Washington Post.
"The Civics Education Initiative will introduce legislation in Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah to require students to take the test at any point during their high school careers, and to pass it before receiving a high school diploma or a general equivalency degree," said the Washington Post, adding that its goal is to implement similar requirements in every state by the Constitution's 230th birthday on Sept. 17, 2017.
