TOPEKA — The words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” appear in which founding document? Why did the United States get involved in the Gulf War? Why do U.S. Representatives serve shorter terms than U.S. Senators?
These are among the 128 questions on the U.S. Citizenship Test, and they can serve as study material for Kansas students.
High school freshmen would be required to take a 100-question exam based on the citizenship test that prospective U.S. citizens take as part of the U.S. naturalization process, under a bill that would also require students to be taught the dangers of communism and socialism.
Senate Bill 381 Incorporate the test into the state-mandated U.S. history and civics curriculum in public schools and accredited private and parochial schools that students must pass to earn a diploma.
The bill passed the Senate on Thursday with a vote of 26-14. It also requires the state board of education to develop a curriculum to teach K-12 public school students “the negative impacts of communist and socialist regimes and ideologies.”
The bill has its roots in conservative circles concerned about anti-Americanism and controversial statistics that claim Gen Z Americans are attracted to communist and socialist ideals. Sen. Brad Starnes, a Riley Republican and former school superintendent who introduced the bill, assured the House Education Committee that neither the citizenship test nor the curriculum would replace existing U.S. history units.
Research on the younger generation’s inclination toward socialist or communist causes is less clear. A 2019 Gallup Poll found that Millennials and Gen Z (ages 18-39) Treat capitalism and socialism equally. But overall, Americans still View capitalism in a more positive light than socialism.
Joshua Reynolds, a policy analyst at Cicero Action, an advocacy arm of the conservative think tank, supported the bill, citing three independent polls showing that young people aged 18 to 39 have positive views of communism and socialism.
Reynolds cited a 2020 poll from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in her testimony, “63% of Gen Z and Millennials believe the Declaration of Independence is a better guarantee of ‘liberty and equality’ than the Communist Manifesto, compared to 95% of the Silent Generation.”
Leah Fleet, assistant executive director of advocacy for the Kansas School Boards Association, said the socialism and communism curriculum may be inappropriate and complex for early grades.
“We believe this bill was not drafted with Kansas graduation standards in mind,” she said Monday.
The Kansas State Board of Education has recommended the teaching of communism and socialism, according to testimony Monday from board members Cathy Hopkins and Beryl New. They wrote that the committee “sets standards in history, government, and social studies that prepare students to become informed, thoughtful, engaged citizens who enrich their communities, their states, their countries, their world, and themselves.”
If passed, two provisions of the bill would go into effect on July 1, making incoming freshmen next school year the first group required to pass a citizenship test as a condition of graduation.
During the naturalization process, most potential U.S. citizens must complete an interview and a citizenship test, which includes an English portion and a citizenship portion. People must correctly answer at least 12 of 20 citizenship questions, which are randomly selected from the cache 128 questions About the basic events, people, principles, and procedures of the United States. The bill says high school students in Kansas must take a 100-question test that contains questions essentially similar to those that appear on the Civics test.
Arizona, which has required its high school students to pass a civics test based on the U.S. Citizenship Test since 2017, raised the passing threshold in 2026 to require students to answer at least 70 of 100 questions instead of the original 60. Wisconsin has also required the test since 2015.
Arizona only offers the test in English, while Wisconsin offers it in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
The Kansas proposal does not specify designated language. Students can request to take the test as early as seventh grade and can take the test as many times as needed to pass. The bill does not outline what constitutes a passing grade.
