State mandates civics test in schools

Idaho sophomores, juniors and seniors took a citizenship test on Dec. 6 and 7 at LHS due to a new Idaho state graduation requirement.
  According to government teacher Keith Stuffle, students can retake the test as many times as needed to pass, as it is a new graduation requirement for the current class of 2017.
 This is the same test that determines citizenship, newly required by the state of Idaho as State Legislation passed Senate Bill 1071 in 2015.
  According to sos.idaho.gov/Civics, “A pupil may take the civics test, in whole or in part, at any time after enrolling in grade 7 and may repeat the test as often as necessary to pass the test. The questions on the high school civics test will be taken from the same list of questions used by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to test applicants for naturalization.”
  “The State of Idaho put out this new law — it was not our school district,” Stuffle said.   “They did so to create a movement toward people understanding their government to show a baseline knowledge of the history and government of this country.”
  Idaho is not the only state that implemented some sort of civics test as a graduation requirement. According to socialstudies.org, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Florida, New Hampshire, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Minnesota require civics tests as a graduation requirement.
  The junior high schools in Lewiston will also give the test to help prepare students.
  “I understand why we have to take it, but it sucks that it was just thrown at us,” said senior Lizzi Surby.
  “Especially when the other classes get multiple years to be able to pass the test and we have a couple months,” added senior Raylynn Wilson.
  Despite such concerns, the seniors said they felt confident about passing the test.