ACTA Releases New Campus Survey Exposing America’s Worsening Crisis in Civic Illiteracy 

The cost of an ignorant, apathetic generation is before us: the American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s (ACTA) recent survey shows that 57% of college students say they would flee the United States if it were invaded by Russia. 

Today, ACTA released The Story of Our Nation: How Well Do College Students Know America?, a nationwide survey polling 3,009 undergraduate students on their grasp of basic facts about American history and government. This is the third of three such surveys that ACTA has conducted since 2024.  

The Story of Our Nation, conducted in partnership with College Pulse, was fielded between March 23, 2026, and May 18, 2026. The results lay bare the urgent need for curricular reform: 

• Only 37% of students know that the Legislative branch of the government has the power to declare war.  

• Only 39% of students know that senators serve for six years and representatives serve for two years in the U.S. Congress. 

• Less than half (44%) know that the purpose of the Federalist Papers was to gain ratification of the U.S. Constitution.  

• Only 26% of students know that the source of the phrase “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” is the Gettysburg Address.  

There is only one realistic solution to this crisis: require students to take well-designed courses in U.S. history and government at every college and university.   

Accordingly, on April 21, 2026, ACTA released A Broadside for the Nation: Preparing College Students for Informed Citizenship. The report bears the signatures of all twenty-four distinguished commissioners on ACTA’s National Commission of American History and Civic Education and the endorsement of fifty-seven national leaders in education and public policy. The Broadside catalogs the failures of American colleges and universities to educate students in the basic knowledge required to become engaged, informed citizens; calls for all American institutions of higher education to rectify this crisis by requiring students to take a foundational course in U.S. history and government to graduate; and provides crucial guidance on how to implement its recommendations. 

“The continued dismal performance of our nation’s undergraduates is a damning indictment and a sure sign that higher education has abdicated a fundamental responsibility,” said ACTA President Michael Poliakoff. “Our free institutions did not last for centuries and become the envy of the world by accident; each generation is responsible for passing along and building upon what came before it. This survey once again serves as a clarion call. American students have told us loud and clear that they cannot and will not uphold and defend what they do not comprehend. Yet, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our great republic, American colleges and universities continue to graduate students shockingly unprepared for the demands of citizenship.”  

The Story of Our Nation builds upon a key part of ACTA’s 30-year mission: to ensure that all American college students complete a course on U.S. history and government that prepares them for informed citizenship. ACTA’s extensive resources on civic education include its similar 2024 survey, Losing America’s Memory 2.0; its 2016 report, A Crisis in Civic Education; its 2019 survey, America’s Knowledge Crisis; and its unique college ratings tool, What Will They Learn?^®, which assesses the rigor of core curricula at over 1,100 institutions nationwide.