96.5% of public high school kids would not pass U.S. citizenship test

Good grief:

only 3.5 percent of traditional public high school students would be able to pass a U.S. citizenship test— bombing out on questions such as who was America's first president, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and what do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution

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The results come as teachers focus less on the memorization of discrete facts, given that information is so readily available at the stroke of a key, and more on the application of knowledge.

Ladner said that philosophy "is entirely wrongheaded. It's very much like learning to compose music. You have to learn your scales before you compose a symphony — and you need some foundation of facts before you can do higher-level thinking."
But John Wright, the head of the state teachers union, the Arizona Education Association, dismissed the report as a "gotcha piece of writing."

"I think there's already an ongoing discussion of standards and assessment, but it is not informed by this kind of survey," he said, adding that for all of its shock value, he didn't find it very analytical.

Ronald Marx, the dean of the University of Arizona's College of Education, said he wasn't pleased to hear the findings but said he was more concerned than alarmed.
"You don't develop a deep understanding of how government works by knowing the name of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution," he said.

I understand the point about mere memorization of facts; however, if you don't know the most basic, rudimentary facts, like what are the two major political parties (less than half answered correctly), should those of voting age really be participating in the election of our future leaders? I mean, sure it's the right of every citizen; but when you can't even pass the basics of a citizenship test.....