Opinion: Elected Officials Flunk Constitution Quiz

[Angry Dragon]

Richard Brake
Special to AOL News
Jan 14, 2011 – 6:00 AM

~snip~

For five years now, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has been conducting a national survey to gauge the quality of civic education in the country. We've surveyed more than 30,000 Americans, most of them college students, but also a random sample of adults from all educational and demographic backgrounds.

~snip~

But those elected officials who took the test scored an average 5 percentage points lower than the national average (49 percent vs. 54 percent), with ordinary citizens outscoring these elected officials on each constitutional question. Examples:

Only 49 percent of elected officials could name all three branches of government, compared with 50 percent of the general public.
Only 46 percent knew that Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war -- 54 percent of the general public knows that.
Just 15 percent answered correctly that the phrase "wall of separation" appears in Thomas Jefferson's letters -- not in the U.S. Constitution -- compared with 19 percent of the general public.
And only 57 percent of those who've held elective office know what the Electoral College does, while 66 percent of the public got that answer right. (Of elected officials, 20 percent thought the Electoral College was a school for "training those aspiring for higher political office.")


The rest of the story: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/14/opinion-who-are-the-constitutional-illiterates/

Take the quiz

[slackmaster]

1. That's sad but it doesn't surprise me

There are a lot of idiots in office.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I got 8 out of 10

Need to study more I guess

[Drale]

3. In 7th and 8th grade

we had to take a state constitution test and US constitution test respectively. I was the only one in my whole grade to get a 100% on both and thats out of about 250 students.

[Lebam in LA]

4. I got them ALL right

:bounce:

[Angry Dragon]

5. And I see you got a gold star for that

:hi:

[SouthernLiberal]

8. Me, too!

I have been know to argue that whatever we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, it can't be war, because Congress has not declared it.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. It'd probably be worse if given to the House members. I got 10 of 10 correctly.

[hobbit709]

7. To quote I-am-not-a-witch "That's in the Constitution?"

[shraby]

9. Got 10 out of 10 correct.

[Leftist Agitator]

10. How could anyone miss any of these?

This is basic civics for Christ's sake... I hate this fucking country.