The South Dakota House Education Committee has advanced on a 9-6 vote a bill to create an optional social studies curriculum for K-12 and university students rooted in “American exceptionalism” and the founding ideals of the United States.
The committee also recommended sending the bill to the Appropriations Committee for the $150,000 needed to fund it.
Specifically, HB 1070 creates a new Center for American Exceptionalism at Black Hills State University, South Dakota’s largest teacher preparation institute, which would develop the ”American exceptionalism” sought by Gov Kristi Noem.
The Black Hills State center would come up with college courses comparing the U-S with socialist and communist nations while overseeing a K-12 social and civic curriculum called, “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution Program.”
Republican Representative Scott Odenbach, whose district includes BHSU, is the chief sponsor of the bill. He says the goal is to balance critical thinking with a love for the U-S, adding that when students graduate “they should love America.”
In testimony before the Education Committee, BHSU political science professor Nicholas Drummond praised the goal of creating a unified history by generating hope for the future based on founding ideals.
Drummond argued the country is going down two paths; one of excessive individualism and another of warring identity politics, which “leads us away from a conception of a national interest in the common good,” adding that he spends “far too much time studying the decline of this country,”
State education groups pointed out limits to Odenbach’s plan, such as its lack of long-term funding and being out of touch with individual schools.
Diana Miller, who lobbies for the state’s 25 largest schools, said the proposed Black Hills State center would disrupt a delicate chain of command.
Miller said K-12 education in South Dakota “is not broken,” and she questioned the wisdom of adding another government entity and board for local school districts to deal with..