ACTA Report Provides A Civic Literacy Assessment Of College Students

"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free nation." - A quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson.  Although there is no evidence in his writings that he ever made the statement it is an accurate reflection of Jefferson's views on the importance of education & is a principal reason he founded the University of Virginia. 

What Jefferson did say was "Whenever the people are well informed, they may be trusted with their own government."  In this regard Jefferson focused on literacy, arithmetic, history, & civics - the study of the civil & political rights & obligations of citizens in a society.

During this past summer of 2024 the American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA) surveyed over 3,000 college students & found  that far too many college graduates have little or no understanding of their own system of government.  You don't need Jefferson's wisdom to see this finding illustrates one of the common sense types of problems Benjamin Franklin was talking about when he answered Elizabeth Powell's question about what sort of government the delegates of the Constitutional Conventionhad created - "A republic, madam, if you can keep it." 

The ACTA survey report entitled Losing America's Memory 2.0 - A Civic Literacy Assessment Of College Students verified the findings of other posts over the years that show the poor state of American university students' civic literacy - not to mention the other basic subjects Jefferson highlighted above.  Several of these previous posts include man on the street interviews with Jay Leno & Mark Dice.  Click here to watch Mark in some of these past posts convince people to sign a petition to support a national illiteracy program in the schools & here to watch Mark convince people to sign a petition to repeal the Bill Of Rights where he tells the petition signers "Obama is doing everything he can to repeal the Bill Of Rights & we're just showing the citizenry is right behind him."

Now these interviews are from over a dozen years ago & the above ACTA report from July 8, 2024 doesn't show progress.  Consider some of the results I selected from the above report:

Q1. Who is the current President of the Senate? 

14% Mitch McConnell

10% Charles Schumer

27% Kamala Harris

28% Joe Biden

20% Not sure

Q8. Which branch of the government has the power to declare war?

48% The Executive

32% The Legislative

3% The Pentagon

5% The Judicial

11% Not sure

Q11. Which government action freed all slaves in the United States?

56% The Emancipation Proclamation

2% The Declaration of Independence

9% The Civil Rights Act of 1866

28% The 13th Amendment

6% Not sure

Q18. Article I of the U.S. Constitution describes the powers of which branch of government?

22% The Executive

36% The Legislative

8% The Judicial

35 The Bureaucracy

32% Not sure

Q20. In what year was the U.S. Constitution written?

51% 1776

32% 1787

12% 1789

5% 1812

Q28. How many justices must be on the Supreme Court, according to the Constitution?

11% Seven

33% Nine

12% Twelve

25% The Constitution does not specify a number

19% Not sure

Q13. To whom is Jay-Z married?

1% Taylor Swift

75% Beyonce

6% Rihanna

1% Miley Cyrus

17% Not sure

Paying tens of thousands of dollars for a college education with graduates having no better idea of the governance of the world they are about to enter does not make sense @ any level. It is best to understand what students are expected to learn before going away to college. In this regard ACTA prepares annual evaluations of over 1,100 colleges & universities exclusively for this purpose & I share these with the readership. Let me know if you need help in this regard.

But a large amount of this material should really be learned in grades 6 through 12. This brings it right down to the parents getting involved & doing something about it if it's important to them if their child only knows the answer to Q13 above.