The nation celebrates George Washington’s birthday on Monday, but a new survey finds more than 7 in 10 voters would fail a basic quiz about the government he helped found.
In a survey of 2,000 registered voters released this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that one-third did not know the three branches of the federal government and about half correctly identified Congress as the branch that creates laws.
Two-thirds of respondents took high school civics, but only 25% were “very confident” they could explain the workings of American democracy. The business lobbying group described the finding as “alarming” with the approach of nationwide elections in November and the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in 2026.
“While Americans across backgrounds value civic participation in theory, we are sorely lacking in the basic knowledge that translates values into informed, engaged citizenship,” said Hilary Crow, head of the Civic Trust, a nonprofit civics education initiative at the foundation.
In the Chamber of Commerce survey, 54% of adult voters did not know the answer to the multiple-choice question: “How many members are there in the House of Representatives?” The answer is 435.
Another multiple-choice question asked: “How many justices are there on the U.S. Supreme Court?” Among respondents, 48% did not know there are nine.
The survey bolstered reports that painted a bleak picture of U.S. history and civics knowledge in recent years:
• In September, an annual survey from the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 40% of U.S. adults knew the First Amendment protects freedom of religion and 28% knew it guarantees freedom of the press.
• Only 13% of eighth-graders scored proficient in American history on the most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress, a standardized exam overseen by the Department of Education.
Several leading scholars said Tuesday that the survey’s findings suggest widespread ignorance about U.S. representative democracy.
“Historical literacy in American public culture is indeed a problem,” said James Grossman, director of the American Historical Association.
Sociologist Andrew Perrin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, noted a deeper inability to talk respectfully about politics.
“I do think that better civic education … is vital, but I think it needs to be a blend of basic knowledge along with the capacity to communicate, listen, argue and disagree civilly and productively,” Mr. Perrin said.
Acknowledging that political polarization could stop students from having those conversations in school, the Chamber of Commerce has proposed workplaces as fruitful for adult discussion.
The survey released Monday found more than 75% of adults viewed political division in the country and government as a major problem, but only 19% saw significant political tensions at their jobs. Eighty-two percent said businesses could play an “important role” in bringing people together.
According to the nonprofit research center More in Common, which favors a middle ground in history education between liberal and conservative concerns, a shift from grassroots civics organizations toward professional political advocacy groups has made it harder for people to find such spaces.
“Solutions need to focus on creating new spaces where Americans can learn and engage in civics,” said Dan Vallone, U.S. director of More in Common. “As the chamber notes, businesses and workplaces can serve as such a setting.”
Some scholars have blamed social media for the knowledge gaps, but conservatives say public schools and colleges have shifted in recent decades from teaching basic facts to promoting left-wing “civic engagement” on issues such as race and gender identity.
“At a moment when misinformation and conspiracy theories suffuse our political culture, it has never been more urgent for students to learn about the nation’s principles and practices,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania.
According to a report published last month by Arizona State University, a yearlong study of introductory U.S. history syllabuses in the nation’s top 150 colleges found that “identity-focused terms” such as “toxic masculinity” and “oppression” dominated content.
“Without [basic] knowledge, the young are open to activist demagogues calling for the end of the Electoral College, the expansion of the Supreme Court, and open-ended voting on Election Day,” said Donald Critchlow, an American historian and director of the ASU Center for American Institutions, which conducted the study. “Maybe these reforms are needed and should be debated, but without civic knowledge, endorsements of such reform are mindless.”
“The Chamber of Commerce is typical of middle-of-the-road institutions who don’t realize that civics has been captured by the radical left,” said Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University. “The lesson is that [institutions] need to disengage themselves from action civics in any form and focus on actual civic literacy.”
Woody Holton, a historian of Colonial America at the University of South Carolina, said the problem is that students get bored in classes that fail to go beyond basic facts that can be found via Google.
“We need to stop teaching civics through rote memorization,” Mr. Holton said. “If instead we left the controversy in, if we got students debating and holding mock trials, they would find civics just as exciting as political junkies like me do.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.