Rebecca Yanez (OU)
As of 2021, Oklahoma is ranked the 7th least educated state in the country. Regardless of party affiliation, education is an issue many Oklahomans want to address in some way. For ORU delegate Sen. Blanscet, an important way of addressing it is through reforming our civic education. Specifically, Blanscet’s bill targets constitutional education. The bill is titled the “Educate the Youth” act. According to Blanscet, she specifically sought out constitution education because she was surprised at how little many of her peers knew about the constitution. According to the Brookings Institute, only 1 in 4 Americans are able to name all three branches of government
Blanscet hopes that by adding further incentives to implement education in the constitution, more people can better participate as citizens. According to Non Doc, the most recent real life efforts from the state legislature have included a test identical to the citizenship test. Blanscet initially had a required test as part of determining a completion status for the proposed curriculum. Sen. Boren authored an amendment that struck this section out entirely.
According to Boren, “I authored an amendment to remove the presence of standardized tests attached to this bill because standardized testing is inherently ableist and shows no evidence of being a true measure of one’s intelligence or work ethic.”
Blanscet believes the house will be in favor of this bill due to the positive impact this legislation would have on the youth.