SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota teachers and school administrators are voicing opposition to Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposed standards for social studies in public schools because it mostly left them out of the process of writing the standards.
The state’s Board of Education Standards has kicked off a series of public hearings before deciding whether to adopt the Republican governor’s proposed standards.
They would remake the state’s standards for history and civics by relying heavily on material from Hillsdale College, a private, conservative institution in Michigan.
Conservatives and some parents who spoke at the Board of Education Standards hearing in Aberdeen on Monday defended the proposal as a robust effort to address a lack of knowledge of American civics.
But the majority of those Monday, 86-percent, were in opposition to the new standards.
The state Department of Education so far has received 707 comments by email and U.S. mail on the proposal. They included 67 in support, 25 neutral and more than 600 in opposition. The department will continue to accept written comments through March 2023, when it’s possible the board could reach a decision.
The governor-appointed board will hold three more public hearings. The next will come on November 21 in Sioux Falls at Carnegie Town Hall. Hearings in Rapid City and Pierre next year haven’t been set.
