HERE IS THE PROBLEM

Hundreds of thousands of young people across this once great country, just like the one in this video, re-elected Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DL-a-r7iJIU#!

Our nation’s college students are largely civically illiterate.  According to surveys from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, college freshmen typically flunk a 60-question civics test with an average score of just better than 51 percent; college seniors flunk it with a score of around 53 percent.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, our country’s high schools taught less about the constitution in 2010 than they did in 2006, a trend that continues.  In fact, in 2010, only 67 percent of high school seniors studied our founding documents, meaning about a third don’t study our government in the year before they are eligible to vote.

Based on National Assessment of Education Progress tests, the formal assessment exams given to students across the nation to gauge what they’re learning, American students exhibit an alarming lack of proficiency in government and economics.

As of 2006 only 36 percent of high school seniors could name the government’s primary source of income. (That would be taxes, kids.)  Only 33 percent could explain the effect of an increase in real interest rates on consumer borrowing, and a scant 11 percent could analyze how a change in unemployment rates affects income, spending and production. 

And of course, it’s not just young adults who are civically illiterate.  In 2008, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute administered a basic 33-question civic literacy test to a random sample of 2,508 American adults. Respondents had a range of educational attainment from high school diplomas to advanced degrees.