Civics Teaching and Testing

It's very clear that a large majority of Americans don't understand enough about civics, history, public policy, or the constitution to be able to make informed political decisions.    For example, when voters, including tea party folks, are asked about Obamacare, they are somewhat opposed, and this opposition has been growing.  But when they are polled about the specific policy changes imposed by the ACA, without ever mentioning that it is ACA, they are overwhelmingly supportive of nearly all of it, and even substantially supportive of the mandate.   There's clearly some distortion and probably propaganda involved.  Then you get teapartiers carrying signs saying "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare".  This was not an isolated incident.  It can only be a symptom of a deep misunderstanding.  Then you get Romney and Ryan, both of whom say they want to do things which could only cut Medicare deeply, screaming about Obamacare cutting Medicare $716B--No, ACA moves the $716B to parts of Health Care that work, and away from Part D, which didn't.  Nearly all tea party members can't find "separation of church and state" in the constitution, so they believe that the constitution doesn't require it.   They ignore, or are unaware of the fact that the people who wrote the first amendment say that separation is how we should achieve the religious freedom required there.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor points out that many states have completely dropped all civics teaching requirements and worries that this results in an electorate that can't make informed decisions about important things...such as the above.

I think you should be required to pass a civics competency test before you can vote, and it should be constructed to eliminate "low information voters". here's a (possibly extreme) stawman for comment: "how many supreme court justices are there? Name 5 of them and give a little about their philosophy. What is the scientific method and what about it gives scientists high confidence in their results? give an economic, political and sociological description of the following societal models: communism, european socialism, capitalism, oligarchism, monarchy."

I think a class that teaches something like this should be part of the standard high school curriculum, and you should have to pass the test every few years to vote (with changes according to public events).  I took a class in the 8th grade that would have gotten me to about 50% on this test, and I think a high school graduate should test over 70%.   Right now, only a tiny percent would pass my test though, and that's a problem.