Can you pass the citizenship test?
More high schools across America are requiring students to pass the U.S. citizenship test to receive their diploma.
This fall Iowa began giving its version — a multiple-choice test drawn from the same exam immigrants must pass.
Only 60% of the more than 100 Burlington students who took it passed on the first try. In surveys, the average American does a lot worse than that.
The civics test
For years the standard civics test required six correct answers out of 10, drawn from a bank of 100.
In 2020, the Trump administration replaced it with a harder one. It required 12 correct out of 20, from a bank of 128.
The Biden administration tossed that version and went back to the original. Trump brought the harder test back in 2025.
Here are some of the questions from the civics test study guide:
Q: What is the supreme law of the land?
A: The U.S. Constitution.
Our Constitution is the oldest written national constitution still in force.
Because the founders distrusted human nature — after seeing what unchecked government power had done throughout history — they gave the federal government checks and balances.
They split power among three branches, then split it again between the federal government and the states.
They later added several limits on that government — the Bill of Rights — to make clear what government could not do.
As Jefferson put it, “Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.”
Jefferson wrote those words long before COVID-19, when government weenies attacked and mocked scientists who questioned lockdowns, masks and the lab-leak theory — and used government might to silence their voices on social media.
A republic with an electoral college
Here’s another great question:
Q: What is the form of government of the United States?
A: A republic, a constitution-based federal republic or a representative democracy.
To be sure, we are a republic, not a pure democracy — something the founders feared.
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison wrote that democracies were “spectacles of turbulence and contention,” in which a majority could sacrifice a minority to its passion.
A republic puts representatives between the people and the law. Their job is not to echo the crowd, but to cool it.
If we were a pure democracy in which the majority takes all, Hillary Clinton would have become president in 2016. She won the popular vote. Trump won the Electoral College.
And if Hillary had become president, Bill would have been the first “first guy” — which would have brought more entertainment to our humorless nation than anything Trump ever said or did.
Here are some other very useful questions:
Q: What are two ways Americans can participate in their democracy?
A: Citizens can vote, join a political party or civic group, help with a campaign, write a letter to the editor or run for office.
Q: What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?
A: Serve on a jury or vote in a federal election.
Q: What are two rights only for United States citizens?
A: The right to vote and the right to run for federal office.
Q: What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?
A: Defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Requirement for all citizens?
More than 90% of immigrants who go through the laborious process of becoming a U.S. citizen pass the oral civics test on their first try.
The average American does far worse.
A 2025 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation survey found that 58% of American adults failed a basic civics test.
That ignorance has a cost. Gallup reported in September 2026 that 43% of Americans now view socialism positively, the first time the number has topped 40% since the poll began tracking it in 2010.
A free society depends on informed citizens who know how precious and volatile freedom is — and, as Ronald Reagan said, that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
Maybe we should require native-born Americans to pass the citizenship test to keep their citizenship.
Regrettably, that would be unconstitutional.
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Copyright 2026 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
See Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos featuring his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.
Copyright 2026 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
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