Elected Officials Fail US History Test

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute conducted a test of 33 multiple choice history/civics questions and U.S. elected officials had an average failing grade of just 44 - worse than the population at large. And fewer than 1% of the takers received an A.

This is scary. Most troubling to me is that only 10% of officials answered correctly why free market economies produce greater wealth than centrally planned economies. And in another ominous sign in this economic downturn, only 22% answered correctly what the expected reaction of government is during recessions. I believe this quiz is further evidence of how clueless governments are with respect to history, including how governments can make recessions much worse (i.e. the New Deal). But it's worse than that - elected officials seem clueless about basic tenets of the Constitution and American principles.

The quiz is here if you want to test your knowledge. And the overall results by question are here. There are a couple of questions that make you think, but generally they aren't too tricky. I did get two wrong myself.

Maybe we should make the test a requirement for members of Congress and publish the results. I don't think that's too much to ask for a group of people who create the laws of our country.