- Proposed legislation amends Utah high school graduation requirements to include expanded social studies curriculum.
- High school students would be required to pass a yearlong course on American constitutional government and citizenship.
- The amended graduation requirements would be implemented during the 2026-2027 school year.
Surveys reveal only about one-third of Americans could pass the U.S. naturalization test.
The nation’s collective grasp of U.S. history and government operations apparently falls short of what’s demanded of even the country’s newest citizens.
So some work is likely needed to boost the nation’s “civics-savvy” — including in the classroom.
But proposed legislation requiring graduating Utah’s high school students to pass 3.5 units of social studies — including a yearlong course on American constitutional government and citizenship — goes beyond simply enhancing civics literacy, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Douglas Welton.
House Bill 381, said Welton, is primarily motivated by wanting to produce thoughtful citizens. “There is a growing interest in civics education and making sure that our future voters understand how their government works.”
The lawmaker is observing many Americans losing trust in government institutions. “And I think some of that comes back to not knowing how it works.”
HB381, said Welton, is designed to help Utah’s high school students “get back to the core of who we are as Americans.
A world languages teacher at Salem Hills High School, Welton, R-Payson, knows Utah high schools from the inside-out. He’s observed students in recent years discovering greater interest “on how America operates.”
But, he added, “we’re graduating kids who are going out to be voters and participate in the system — but they don’t actually know how the system works.”
Fundamental elements of American civics — things like, say, the caucus system or the process for selecting candidates — are foreign concepts to many Utah kids.
Welton hopes his bill would better ensure that young Utahns — regardless of their future career paths — would graduate from high school as “educated voters” prepared to “participate robustly in the system.”
Fostering critical civics thinking in the classroom
Utah’s current high school graduation criteria requires students to satisfy three social studies requirements — with 2.5 being course specified and the remaining half-credit an elective.
HB381 would “beef up the civics portion and make sure the kids really understand it,” said Welton.
If ratified, high school students would be required to pass a yearlong course in United States constitutional government and citizenship.
Much of traditional civics education focuses on the workings of the federal government. But Welton would like to see Utah kids also have a strong understanding of how local governments work within their own communities.
“The reality is that state and local government has a greater impact on our day-to-day lives than anything the federal government does,” he said.
The amended social studies requirements are also designed to foster critical thinking in civic matters. Welton hopes to see high school students engaging in more abstract ideas such as governance — and then asking questions about what is the correct way to govern when, say, different rights that appear to be in conflict.
If ratified, HB381 would also remove a current graduation requirement that high school students pass a civics test.
The additional class instruction articulated in the bill would imbue kids with a deeper understanding of how the country works and “what makes America, America,” said Welton.
The bill has yet to be presented to a legislative committee for debate, but Welton reports bipartisan support. “The colleagues I’ve talked to, both Republican and Democrat, all agree strongly that we need enhanced civics education.”
If the bill passes in its current form, the amended gradation requirements would be implemented during the 2026-2027 school year.
Most high schools in Utah are already well-equipped to implement the proposed curriculum changes. Social studies teachers are already in place, said Welton — “and they love talking about this stuff.”
The yearlong course focusing on American constitutional government and citizenship might limit some of the current elective social studies options.
Welton calls his Civic Education Amendments bill one of the highlights of his five-year tenure on Capitol Hill.
“I think it’ll be really good for society,” he said, “It will be really good for the state of Utah — in the civic engagement space as well as critical thinking and literacy.”