Lawmaker wants to add American citizenship course to Utah schools

SALT LAKE CITY — A local representative wants Utahns to know more about how their government works before graduating high school.

Rep. Douglas Welton, R-Payson, introduced HB381, which would require students to pass a course in American constitutional government and citizenship before receiving their high school diploma.

“I’ve just seen this trend where we really are struggling to understand the basics of the Constitution, the basics of our foundations,” Welton told KSL NewsRadio.

 

Welton taught high school and was the president of the Utah Association of Japanese Teachers and the Utah Debate Coaches Association. He said Utahns’ lack of education on how local and federal government work affects their engagement with the public.

“I think it trickles over into conversations we have when we disagree and how we go about those,” Welton said.

Preparing soon-to-be-voters

Welton worried that the education system was not preparing soon-to-be voters on what they could be voting for.

“They don’t understand how we choose our candidates. They didn’t know what a caucus was or what getting votes was or not,” he said.

Welton said some voters do not understand the separation of powers clearly.

He cited a time when he was on the Payson City Council and the city wanted a Cafe Rio restaurant to come to town. He said several people were upset because they thought the city was building the restaurant and wasting taxpayer money.

“We’re not actually building the Cafe Rio, and it was hard to convey something like that,” Welton said. “Most people get it. I should say the vast majority of people understood that. But there’s a lot of things that people really don’t understand when it gets to the to the state and county level. And that’s the level that affects Utahns the most.” 

Bipartisan support

Welton said he talked to Republicans and Democrats and both groups approved the idea. While he doesn’t know HB381 would fair in the Senate, he believed it could pass the House.

“There’s some logistical things that we might have to address, but they’re like, ‘yeah, this is this is important. ‘We need we need kids who are going to go in and be the future representatives,'” he said. 

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