Arizona civics law hurts local control

Published 8:03 pm Monday, January 19, 2015

Arizona has fast-tracked legislation demanding that every high school student pass a civics test before graduating high school. It’s a classic example of good intentions gone awry.

There are some good reasons — conservative reasons — why state legislatures shouldn’t micromanage school curricula, even for a commendable causes, such as increasing students’ understanding of how government works.

The first is the issue of local control. The second is the approach schools would inevitably take toward the subject.

“Arizona on Thursday became the first state in the nation to pass legislation requiring high school students to pass the U.S. citizenship test on civics before they can graduate — part of a growing nationwide effort to boost civics education,” the Associated Press reports. “The swift action by the Arizona Legislature comes as states around the country take up similar measures. The proposal requires high school students to correctly answer 60 of 100 questions on the civics portion of the test new citizens must pass.”

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey outline his intention in his first State of the State address.

“A snapshot of Arizona public education came in a survey a few years ago,” he said. “It measured some basic knowledge among students, on matters where knowledge should be assumed. It was an elementary civics test, along the lines of the test required of every new citizen. And when 96 percent of our kids could not pass, you know something is missing.”

The problem is, that survey was flawed. The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute took it off its website over questions about the research.

Nevertheless, a bigger issue is local control. It would be one thing if the move came as a result of a grassroots-level surge in interest from parents and local school districts — folks who would be in place to monitor how well the civics curriculum was being implemented.

But it’s not. It’s a national push by a nonprofit think tank, the Joe Foss Institute. As laudable as the Institute’s goals are, local control and direction should always prevail.

A second issue is just how schools would approach the subject.

It might be instructive to look at how the Texas Legislature did when it ordered public schools to teach the Bible. The Legislature approved a bill in 2007 requiring schools to do so; the purpose was, lawmakers said, to “teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy.”

But the Legislature left out any guidelines on how the Bible should be taught, and by whom. The result has been spectacularly unimpressive.

“Academic rigor is so poor that many courses rely mostly on memorization of Bible verses and factoids from Bible stories rather than teaching students how to analyze what they are studying,” the Texas Freedom Network found in a recent study. “One district relies heavily on Bible cartoons from Hanna-Barbera for its high school class.”

Arizona’s free to pass whatever it likes, of course; Texas lawmakers need not follow suit. A similar law is not needed here.