State Lawmakers Consider Bill Requiring Oklahoma High School Students To Pass Citizenship Test

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would require all high school students in Oklahoma to pass the U.S. citizenship test before they can graduate.

The bill has already passed the house. It if becomes law, students would need to pass the test starting with the Class of 2025.

About 400 new immigrants have become naturalized citizens in Tulsa over the past two years. One step to do that is passing the U.S. citizenship test.

It includes questions including "the House of Representatives has how many voting members?" and "how many justices are on the Supreme Court?

House Speaker Pro Tempore Terry O'Donnell wrote the bill and said it's an effort to help future generations understand how government works.

"Looking at it with the deficiency in basic civics, I felt like we could have our high school students take the civics exam, which is given to everyone that comes outside this country. I felt like that would be at least a good baseline of knowledge," O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell said the idea came after protests turned to riots in Portland, and at the U.S. Capitol in D.C.

The bill said any students would be able to retake the test as often as they need until they pass. It said a passing score would be 60 out of 100 questions.

The test for immigrants is given verbally and they have to get 6 out of 10 questions correct to pass.

Representative Forrest Bennett is against the bill because he said it won't do anything to solve the bigger problem, which is people feeling like government has failed them.

"I think it'll have minimal effect to be honest with you, I think people will memorize this like we all did in college, memorize the answers to the questions, and sure if you find yourself at a trivia night Tuesday night asking how long is a U.S. Senate term, hey six years you got it, bam," Bennett said.

The bill now goes to the state Senate. 17 other states already have similar requirements for high schoolers.

You can find a link to the citizenship test here.