South Dakota teachers and school administrators are voicing opposition to Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposed standards for social studies in public schools.
The State Board of Education was in Aberdeen on Monday to kick off a series of public hearings before deciding whether to adopt the proposed standards for teaching history and civics.
The new standards were developed by a commission picked largely by Noem that relied heavily on material from Hillsdale College, a private, conservative institution in Michigan.
Conservatives and some parents who Monday defended the proposal as a robust effort to address a lack of knowledge of American civics.and revive an appreciation for the nation’s founding ideals.
Noem, a potential 2024 White House contender, has billed the proposed standards as “free from political agendas” and the “very best” in the nation.
Teachers and school administrators complained they were left out of the development process and that the standards saddle them with expanding and unwieldy criteria to cover in classrooms but fail to teach students to think analytically about history.