PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Republicans in the South Dakota Senate have passed a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem to ban public universities from using training and orientation material that compels people to feel “discomfort” based on their race.
The bill’s passage on a 27-8 vote was its final major hurdle in the Legislature.
Noem has billed the proposal as a repudiation of so-called “critical race theory.”
But critics warn it will put a chill on academic freedom and sanitize the most painful facts of U.S. history.