I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with a bill that Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced in the Iowa Legislature.

No, it’s not banning cellphones in classes or implementing a Department of Government Efficiency for the state of Iowa. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Reynolds call for passing HF 165, a bill that implements the U.S. Citizenship test as a requirement to graduate high school in Iowa.

I have long believed that the U.S. Citizenship test should be required to pass an American government class, which is often a basic requirement to obtain a high school diploma. I gave a speech on this very topic for an assignment my senior year of high school. The fact that I’m not required to know my birth country’s history while those who want to come here have to prove their knowledge to be granted citizenship never sat right with me.

If you read my last commentary, you’ll know that my father wasn’t born in the United States. He was adopted at birth from Mexico, and my adopted grandmother had to hold up his little hand and recite the Oath and Pledge of Allegiance for him when he was granted naturalized citizenship. Had my father tried to enter the United States two decades later, he would have been required to prove he knew enough about the United States to be allowed to pledge his allegiance.

I never had to pledge my allegiance to the country I was born in. What gives me more of a right to be here simply because of my conception circumstances? What constitutes my free pass?

When I was discovering this double standard, my dad encouraged me to take a practice test, which can be easily accessed online. I answered more than 80 of the 100 questions correctly, and I hadn’t even studied. Granted, I grew up in a household that valued studying history and being an informed citizen, so many of the answers were obvious to me, but it would not have been difficult to study for this test.

The ease of this test is yet another point in its favor. The test is a 10-question multiple-choice exam, and the 10 questions are chosen from a pool of 100. Studying for the exam is actually harder than the exam itself, so if this test is so simple, why are there objections to its requirement?

Let’s discuss the big GOP elephant in the room. Reynolds is calling for a U.S. Citizenship test at the same time that she’s making drastic cuts to education, funnelling taxpayer dollars into private school vouchers and trying to sweep true American history under the rug. Does she really expect her constituents to pass an exam when she’s ordering their teachers to not teach the content?

I’m not surprised at this turn of events because I’ve been calling Republicans hypocrites for a while now. Just when I think they’re making a good point, I’m thrust back into a reality where I question if they actually think about the bills they’re writing.

I will hate on Gov. Reynolds’ political agenda until I’m blue in the face, but I am more than willing to throw my weight behind an issue that I agree with, regardless of who introduced it or what letter appears behind their name.

I 100% support the notion of requiring passing the U.S. Citizenship test to graduate because I 100% believe in teaching the answers to the questions on the test starting in kindergarten. If the curriculum of the test is exposed to students from day one, passing it should be a breeze, and Iowa students, families and lawmakers will have nothing to worry about.