TOPEKA — Rep. Steve Huebert pivoted from politics to mathematics to explain his three-year campaign to add a required civics test to the curriculum of public, private and parochial high schools.
His first lesson was drawn from the Annenberg Civics Knowledge survey of 1,000 adults revealing only 51% were capable of identifying the three branches of government — executive, legislative, judicial. Of particular concern, he said, was one-fourth were unable to name one branch.
The second point is that understanding how government functions and what the constitution authorizes are important components of an informed citizen, Huebert said.
“Just like math students need to learn the basic principles of multiplication in order to study physics and engineering,” said Huebert, a Valley Center Republican who chairs the House Education Committee. “All citizens need to understand the basic principles of how democracy works in order to participate for the rest of their lives. I’m passionate about it. We have a challenge before us.”
He said the solution was House Bill 2039, which would require high school students to pass a civics exam, or a series of civics tests, as part of a required course necessary to for a student to graduate. The Kansas House endorsed 69-54 his strategy to have teachers choose from 60 multiple-choice questions on the naturalization test given by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The version passed by the House would require aggregate student achievement data from the civics assessments to be reported annually to the State Board of Education.
The House Education Committee attempted to appease critics by pulling back from the original proposal to order a 100-question, high-stakes exam of all high school students on civics. The legislation would apply to an estimated 40,000 students annually.
The bill was opposed by the Kansas Association of School Boards, an administrator with the Olathe public school district and the Kansas National Education Association. Their argument was that Huebert’s bill unnecessarily duplicated current elements of the curriculum and interfered with the elected state Board of Education’s authority under the Kansas Constitution to supervise K-12 public education throughout the state. Elected local school boards are responsible for decisions on implementation of curriculum and testing.
“We wonder why we are now singling out young people with the assumption that they know nothing about civics, history and government,” said KNEA representative Mark Desetti. “With the number of elected officials across the nation finding themselves in hot water for ethical violations, misrepresentations of American history, racist comments and even violations of law, perhaps we should require every candidate for elected office to pass such a test.”
He said the theory could be expanded by the Legislature to order testing of law enforcement officers’ grasp of constitutional rights.
Perhaps the state ought to make men and women seeking careers in the U.S. military to demonstrate mastery of civics, history and government before enlisting, he said.
“We do not deny that there is an apparent need for a refresher course in civics in the United States generally,” Desetti said. “But right now, our Kansas public school students are taking civics, history and government classes in our high schools. They are subjected to tests in those classes and, if they pass those tests, they get credit for the class. If they don’t pass, they fail the class and must take it again in order to get enough credits to graduate. There is no need to legislate more in this area.”
State Board of Education members Deena Horst, of Salina, and Ben Jones, of Sterling, said they had no issue with legislators making recommendations about curriculum but “the appropriateness of implementing the contents of a test should be made by educators.” Jones’ state board district includes Valley Center, and he counts Huebert among his constitutients.
Huebert said he didn’t want to get into a power struggle with the state Board of Education. He said the Legislature had the task of making certain students were educated in civic government. Instead of fighting at the Capitol, he said, advocates of education ought to work together on making civic education a key piece of high school teaching.
