h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been working on legislation. What do you think of this proposal?

An informed legislature and executive being vital to the health of any democracy, the following CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT is offered as a protection against ill-informed government.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution, to be known as the OFFICEHOLDER COMPETENCY AMENDMENT (OCA):

The United States Constitution states:

Article I, Section 2.

'No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.'

Article I, Section 3.

'No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.'

Article II, Section 1.

'No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.'

BE IT HEREBY ENACTED, that no person shall be permitted to run for these national offices, nor have their names entered upon official ballots, without proof of their having fulfilled the following ADDITIONAL requirements:

1. Submission of their federal income tax returns for the previous five years.
2. Submission of the background check usually required for employment in a place of trust, such as a public school, including information on previous arrests and/or convictions. (RATIONALE: Voters should know at least as much about candidates as their parole officers.)
3. Submission of satisfactory results of a drug test, such as is administered for public school employment in many states. (RATIONALE: If they are passing legislation while high, we at least want to know about it.)
4. Achievement of a satisfactory grade (85% or higher) on a standardized achievement test in the following subjects:
a. United States History
b. Civics
c. World Geography
d. General Science
e. General Mathematics

(RATIONALE: Do we seriously want C students running our government?)

In regard to requirement (4), be it FURTHER ENACTED that:

a. Qualifications testing will be administered by a board composed of leading educational authorities appointed by the fifty states, and will assess a standard equivalent to a high school diploma knowledge in each subject tested.

(RATIONALE: No leader should be allowed to vote for a declaration of war against a country he or she cannot locate on a map. Legislators may reject scientific findings on climate change or evolution, but they should be able to refute those findings in an eight-page paper, double-spaced, with proper Chicago-style footnotes. And they should not be allowed to run for public office until they understand the process by which elections are held.)

b. In preparation for each Officeholder Examination, courses will be offered FREE OF CHARGE at designated community colleges throughout the United States. Courses will be open to all residents of the state.

c. Officeholder Examination courses will be taught by qualified individuals holding state teaching certification in their subjects.

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That will do it for now. Later, we need a law about Cabinet members. The Interior Secretary's test should involve being left for a week in a remote National Park armed with only a Swiss Army knife and a compass, but that might be negotiable...

''The Interior Secretary's test should involve being left for a week in a remote National Park armed with only a Swiss Army knife and a compass''
That shouldn't be too hard, all the bears would be away targetting schools.