My Students Protesting ICE Cannot Pass U.S. Citizenship Exam
This piece argues that public schools have shifted from their core mission of education to pushing political activism, notably anti-ICE demonstrations, with administrators canceling classes and steering students toward activism rather than teaching.The author contends this reflects a broader decline in civic and constitutional literacy,not simply differing opinions,and cites evidence that many students lack fundamental knowledge of the Constitution,federalism,and the role of law enforcement. NAEP data are highlighted to suggest low proficiency in reading, writing, math, history, and civics, and the author notes that some states have lowered standards, such as New York’s adjustments to reflect a “new normal.”
Drawing on personal classroom experience, the piece claims only a small fraction of students pass a basic citizenship exam, with performance on fundamental civics questions deteriorating over time. The author argues that education should teach about federalism, intergovernmental relations, and constitutional remedies for disagreement, rather than indoctrination or emotion-driven controversy. The essay warns that failing to restore education’s mission will have long-term consequences for democracy, as future voters and leaders may lack the knowledge needed to sustain the republic. It calls for restoring “knowledge first, civics always, activism never,” and questions whether public funding should continue to support a system that the author views as failing at its core. The piece is attributed to Nicholas Giordano, a political science professor.
In recent weeks, I have watched schools close not because of weather or emergencies, but to push students into anti-ICE protests. Administrators shuttered classrooms, stopped instruction, and mobilized students as pawns for far-left activism. The scandal is not that students have opinions. The scandal is that the same institutions that struggle to teach civics have no trouble organizing political demonstrations as they fail at their most basic job: education.
What makes this so frustrating is not simply the indoctrination aspect of this. It’s knowing how little the student body understands the Constitution, federalism, or even the basic role of law enforcement in a society governed by laws. Yet administrators direct these same students into political demonstrations for an issue they hardly understand.
This is not an accident. An education system that has abandoned its core mission produces this predictable result. For years, our public education system has functioned less as a place of learning and more as a training ground for far-left activism. Ideology has replaced academic rigor. Equity has replaced merit. Administrators have abandoned expectations and routinely lowered standards. They excuse failure, and accountability is nonexistent.
According to the latest NAEP data, barely 25 percent of American students can read, write, or do math at grade level. Students’ understanding of American history and civic knowledge is even worse. Only 13 percent of eighth-graders performed at or above proficient level in American history, and 22 percent in civics. In any other industry, no one would tolerate these results, so why do we?
Even those numbers understate the problem, because many states have redefined what “proficient” means. For example, after students in New York State performed below the national average, the NYS Board of Regents (in their infinite wisdom) lowered standards to reflect what they deemed the “new normal.”
Not only is this anathema to the very idea of education, but it also reflects a total lack of respect for the student body. The spring semester has just begun, and out of nearly 200 students in my classes, only a handful passed a basic citizenship exam. I have taught for more than 20 years, and each year the results worsen.
It used to be that while most students could not pass the exam outright, many could still answer five or six out of 10 questions correctly. Today, most students get one or two questions right, and a growing number cannot answer a single question.
These are not difficult questions. They are the fundamentals of American self-government. Which branch of government has the power to declare war? Which amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures? Name one of the writers of the Federalist Papers. These are questions every citizen should be able to answer. Increasingly, they cannot.
Anyone can easily manipulate a population that does not understand our founding, the roles and responsibilities of our institutions, or the Constitution itself. If they don’t know how federalism works, who makes the laws, and who enforces them, convincing some of them that law enforcement itself is illegitimate becomes easy, and for many, that’s exactly what has happened.
Schools use emotion, rather than knowledge, to shape political beliefs and manufacture outrage. Real-world controversies like ICE enforcement are exactly the kind of moment educators should use to teach federalism, intergovernmental relations, the limits of state and local power, and how the Supremacy Clause resolves conflicts between the levels of government.
They could also teach students that when citizens disagree with a law, the remedy in a constitutional republic is not chaos, confrontation, and intimidation, but the right to peaceably assemble, petition their government, and lobby Congress for change.
What schools do now will echo far beyond the classroom, and the consequences will not be confined to education. This is an American problem. As these students grow up, they become the voters, and ultimately, the business leaders, the medical professionals, the teachers, and the future policymakers. Yet they lack the knowledge required to sustain our constitutional republic.
More troubling is that schools plant the seeds of disdain for the very country these students will soon be responsible for governing. Not only will they lack the knowledge to sustain our constitutional republic, they will be primed to dismantle its foundations under the banner of righteousness and justice.
If Americans are going to be outraged, we should start with the multitrillion-dollar education system that is failing our kids, not a federal law enforcement agency enforcing immigration laws that Democrats and Republicans wrote and passed.
Instead of demanding we defund law enforcement agencies enforcing duly enacted laws, perhaps it is time to have a serious conversation about whether taxpayers should continue funding a public education system that is failing at its most basic mission. In any other industry, no one would tolerate these failures, but somehow in public education, administrators reward failure with more money and lower standards.
It is time to restore education’s core mission: knowledge first, civics always, activism never.
Students cannot defend what they don’t know, and a nation that cannot, or will not, teach its children how its own government works is a nation that won’t be able to govern itself for much longer.
Nicholas Giordano is a full-time, tenured professor of political science and the host of “The P.A.S. Report Podcast.”
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