BY KILEY ANGLE & OLIVIA BLANFORD

South’s Advanced Placement Government class ran a study over the political knowledge around the school from Sept. 18-22. South’s findings showed, of the nearly 200 polled, 41.1% couldn’t name the Vice President of the United States. However, 71.8% knew Sam Brownback is the Governor of Kansas.

These statistics show that South’s students are more knowledgeable of their local government than  national government.

Jonathan R. Cole, writer for The Atlantic shares, “It is testimony to the failure of the country’s education system that a high percentage of the voting-age population is simply ignorant of basic facts…knowledge that is necessary to act reasonably and rationally in the political process.”

The education system is often blamed for the absence of government and political knowledge in adolescents.

In the studies run by The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) adolescents and young people typically fall around the ages of 18-29.

In the study of the 2012 election, CIRCLE states that 63.1% of young people who have studied voting or who were encouraged to vote score higher, while 43% knew little to nothing.

The 2016 election statistics show that 23.7 million young voters participated, which leaves 50% of the youth population without a vote.

The AP Government study showed that 51.3% of those surveyed, the majority of South’s students, identified themselves as conservative. The remaining students surveyed identified as 23.1% as liberal, 17.9% independent and 7.7% as libertarian.

Statistics shown from the research done by CIRCLE over the 2012 election. Infographic by K. Angle