"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." -- Thomas Jefferson

According to President Barack Obama, making school days longer and extending the academic school year will increase learning and raise test scores among American children. However, it's not the length of the school year that is the problem so much as the quality of education being imparted to young people, especially when it comes to knowing American history and their rights -- what we used to call civics.

Clearly, the public schools are fostering civic ignorance. For example, a recent study of 1,000 Oklahoma high-school students found that only 3 percent would be able to pass the U.S. Immigration Services' citizenship exam, while incredibly 93 percent of those from foreign countries who took the same test passed. Only 28 percent of Oklahoma students could name the "supreme law of the land" (the Constitution), while even less could identify Thomas Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence. Barely one out of every four students knew that George Washington was the nation's first president. None of the students correctly answered eight or more of the 10 questions, and 97 percent scored 50 percent or less.

Former Republican Governor Terry Branstad broke his silence Friday about his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

After months of speculation, Branstad used a Friday press conference to announce his retirement from Des Moines University, where he served as president for six years.

During that press conference, Branstad also announced his intent to fully explore a run for governor next year. He said he was "very touched and humbled" by the thousands who have asked him to run.

Earlier in the week, the 16-year governor hired top GOP strategist Jeff Boeyink as his campaign manager. The week before that announcement, Branstad formed an exploratory committee for governor.

"We're going to move fast," Boeyink said in an interview. "My job is to build the infrastructure and campaign to make his decision easy. ... It will happen very quickly now that we've moved from a volunteer organization, to secure a professional staff. We will be ramping up our efforts."

You may have read the news by now that former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan is seriously considering another run for governor. Ryan commissioned a poll that shows him leading the GOP pack and running neck-and-neck with Comptroller Dan Hynes and trailing Governor Pat Quinn by five points.

That ain't bad considering Ryan's been out of politics since he lost the 2002 gubernatorial race to Rod Blagojevich.

Ryan's last name, however, will always be a liability in the wake of George Ryan's conviction and imprisonment. Nineteen percent of those polled thought Jim Ryan was the former governor, for instance, and only 10 percent knew he was the former attorney general. Ryan's name identification in the poll is only surpassed by Quinn, although Ryan's negatives are as high as Quinn's - likely because of that toxic last name.

(Editor's note: This is a letter sent to U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chair Christopher Dodd by U.S. Representatives Ron Paul and Alan Grayson.)

Dear Chairman Dodd and members of the Banking Committee,

We are writing to ask you to postpone the confirmation of Ben Bernanke until the Federal Reserve releases documentation that will allow the public and the Senate to have a full understanding of the commitments that the Federal Reserve has made on our behalf. Without such an understanding, it is impossible to know whether Chairman Bernanke is fit to serve another term and fulfill the Federal Reserve's dual mandate to ensure price stability and full employment. A list of said documentation is enumerated below.