Senate:
House:
The State of the Franchise
June 30, 2009 By 4 Comments
Earlier today, Dr. Matt Ladner at the Goldwater Institute revealed a disturbing poll on the state of civics education amongst Arizona students. Some time ago, we ran this video but we thought it was worth posting again. This problem is obviously not limited to Arizona students. This video was shot during the November 2008 Election.
Meet U.S. Senator Al Franken
June 30, 2009 By 8 Comments
From the same people who brought you Jesse Ventura, the race for U.S. Senate in Minnesota is final and the voters of the Land of 10,000 lakes can be proud to have Senator Al Franken as their next Senator.
Just remember, you’re smart enough, you’re good enough and dogone it, people like you.
With “Airhead Amerika Al” now in the Senate, expect the 2010 elections to swing dramatically back to the right.
What is a Trillion Dollars? Putting it into Perspective
June 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
One of my friends sent me this excellent PowerPoint presentation entitled “What is a Trillion?” This will really put things into perspective.
Why aren’t Arizona high schools teaching civics?
June 30, 2009 By 24 Comments
by Matthew Ladner, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
Just in time to celebrate Independence Day, the Goldwater Institute will release its new report, “Freedom from Responsibility: A Survey of Civic Knowledge Among Arizona High School Students,” which reveals only 3.5 percent of Arizona high school students have learned the basic history, government and geography necessary to pass the U.S. Citizenship test.
To conduct the survey, we hired a firm to interview 1,140 Arizona high school students and ask 10 questions drawn at random from the exam given to applicants for United States citizenship. Applicants for citizenship must get six out of 10 questions correct to pass. A recent trial found that 92.4 percent of citizenship applicants passed the test on the first try.
Below are the survey questions, the correct answers, and in parentheses the percentage of public school students providing the correct answer for each question.
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
Answer: The Constitution (29.5%)
2. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
Answer: The Bill of Rights (25%)
3. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
Answer: Senate and House (23%)
4. How many Justices are on the Supreme Court?
Answer: Nine (9.4%)
5. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Answer: Jefferson (25.3%)
6. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
Answer: Atlantic (58.8%)
7. What are the two major political parties in the United States?
Answer: Democratic and Republican (49.6%)
8. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
Answer: Six (14.5%)
9. Who was the first President of the United States?
Answer: Washington (26.5%)
10. Who is in charge of the Executive Branch?
Answer: The President (26%)
Only 3.5 percent of traditional public high school students passed the test. That’s 40 students out of a sample of 1,134 district high school students.
Arizona’s 8th grade social studies standards require that students learn about everything from John Locke to the Mayflower Compact to the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution before high school. It isn’t clear what, if anything, Arizona students are learning in these classes, but it is abundantly clear what they are not learning–U.S. civics, history and geography.
In the report, I recommend that all Arizona high school students be required to pass a version of the U.S. Citizenship exam in order to graduate. Since then, one of our supporters came up with an even better idea: Make the exam a requirement for receiving a driver’s license. Interesting thought…
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.
Republican Professionals Politics on the Rocks event with John Munger – July 9th
June 30, 2009 By 1 Comment
Republican Professionals: “Politics on the Rocks” is proud to announce our July happy hour networking event at The Estate House located at 7134 East Stetson Drive, Suite 200 (Directly across the canal from Olive and Ivy) in Old Town Scottsdale on Thursday, July 9th at 6:00 PM. We have the entire Upstairs Lounge reserved for this event.
There is no cost to attend.
Our honored guest speaker for this event is John Munger. Mr. Muger was former State Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, a former member of the Republican National Committee, and former Pima County Republican Chairman. In 2008 he was Co-Chairman of the McCain for President, Arizona Campaign. He has also served as President and Member of the Arizona Board of Regents.
Currently, he is Chairman of ImagineArizona www.imaginearizona.com, a Political Action Committee with a mission to promote policies based on creating dynamic economic growth through the empowerment of free people and limited government. John Munger currently sits on the Republican Professionals: “Politics on the Rocks” National Advisory Board.
Please RSVP as soon as possible because space is limited. We had hundreds of professionals at our last networking event. To see a picture slide show of our last event please click this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/charlesajensen#play/all/uploads-all/0/U0nWZsPg0XQ
The purpose of “Politics on the Rocks” is to bring Republican & Conservative Professionals together in a monthly happy hour where they can network, socialize, and hear directly from prominent politicians and successful business leaders. Politics on the Rocks was started in Phoenix, Arizona and has spread to other cities.
Regards,
Republican Professionals: “Politics on the Rocks”
www.PoliticsontheRocks.com
RSVP here: http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/BGJBKMWNVRVBHMYZQTTA/july09
President Charles Jensen with members of the advisory board: Alesha Nicole Corey, John Munger, Barry Goldwater, Jr., Shiree Verdone, and Rep. Jonathan Paton
