The past is no longer prologue on many campuses. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni — a nonprofit that supports an increase of college-level civic education — has released a new survey to support that idea. It reveals the “alarming” things that supposedly well-educated millennials actually believe, primarily due to faulty academics.
The new poll of 1,002 college graduates finds that 26% of them say Brett M. Kavanaugh is the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, while 14% of respondents selected Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. Fewer than half correctly identified John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice.
Meanwhile, 18% of the respondents incorrectly agreed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the author of the New Deal, a suite of public programs enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Depression-era. In addition, two-thirds do not know how long U.S. lawmakers actually serve in office.
The organization blames such misinformation on the “steady deterioration” of the curriculum.
“When American history and government courses are removed, you begin to see disheartening survey responses like these, and America’s experiment in self-government begins to slip from our grasp,” said Michael Poliakoff, president of the nonprofit group — who adds that just 18% of colleges now require students to take courses in the U.S. government or American history.
The organization based that percentage after analyzing the content of 1,123 college curriculums around the country.
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