Can we include Oklahoma in Texas' succession? Reddest state in the
union from what I recall. Wonder why?


OKLAHOMA CITY -- Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students
can name the first President of the United States, according to a
survey released today.

The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.

Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and said the group
wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school
students know.

The Oklahoma City-based think tank enlisted national research firm,
Strategic Vision, to access students' basic civic knowledge.

"They're questions taken from the actual exam that you have to take to
become a U.S. citizen," Dutcher said.

A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S.
citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become
citizens.

About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on
their first try, according to immigration service data. However,
Oklahoma students did not fare as well. Only about 3 percent of the
students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test.

Dutcher said this is not just a problem in Oklahoma. He said Arizona
had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.

"Jefferson later said that a nation can't expect to be ignorant and
free," Dutcher said. "It points to a real serious problem. We're not
going to remain ignorant and free."