How many amendments are there to the U.S. Constitution?

Who wrote the Federalist Papers?

If you didn’t know the answers, you could fail the new version of the U.S. citizenship test, unveiled by the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services office.

The test, updated periodically, has come under fire because it’s too hard. And, because it’s too easy.

Don Haider-Markel, a Kansas University political science professor, said both the old and new tests do a good job of evaluating an immigrant’s civics knowledge.

“Old questions were difficult enough; this isn’t that big of a change,” he said. “Even with the new questions, there were plenty of difficult questions on the test that the average citizen would have trouble with.”

Boy, is he right.

A stop in South Park on Friday revealed that the average Lawrence resident knows when tax returns are due – April 15 – but doesn’t have a clue as to how many amendments the Constitution has.

“I want to say five, but I want to say more,” said Elizabeth Reed, Lawrence. “I don’t know, I’ve been out of school for five years.”

Reed wasn’t the only one to have trouble. One group of Lawrence High School students downtown was able to name several national holidays, but that’s about it. They had no idea what powers belong to the federal government or how old you had to be to vote.

The popular answer there? 16. But according to the 26th amendment, voting age is 18.

State Sen. Marci Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat, was one of few elected officials who responded to calls to see how well they would do on the citizenship test. She did the best of everyone quizzed, a perfect 12-for-12.

“I think as much as new Americans or any Americans can learn about how government works, that’s helpful. Because, in fact, we govern ourselves,” Francisco said. “You always do better at your job if you know some of the rules and some of the history and some of what’s gone on.”

While Francisco could pass the citizenship test, it’s a lucky thing it’s not a requirement for those born in America. No one else did better than 50 percent.

OK, here are the answers to the above questions: the Constitution has 27 amendments; and Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers.