HB 1128: Legislature Supports Yearlong Hearings on Common Core Standards

How about same treatment for HB 1234?

House Bill 1128 sailed over its last Legislative hurdle yesterday, passing the Senate 32-0. Primary sponsor Rep. Jim Bolin has thus finally won a legislative victory against the Common Core Standards he so dreads in our classrooms.

Pending Governor Dennis Daugaard's signature, the bill will treat South Dakotans to a year-long series of public hearings (at least four) on the Common Core Standards. Expect these hearings to consist of dreary ed-speak riddled slideshows on how the education bureaucracy is recategorizing the curriculum that good teachers already build and teach to their students, punctuated by cries of "New World Order!" from Sibby, "Evil-lution!" from anti-science troglodytes like Rep. Shawn Tornow, and "Tyranny!" from the handful of other tri-cornered-hat wearers who will bother to attend.

But notice: the Common Core Standards are an integral part of Governor Dennis Daugaard's proposed education reforms. The $8.4 million in one-time money the Governor wants to spend on education includes training in those standards.

The Legislature has declared, with just five dissenting votes, that even this relatively benign portion of Governor Daugaard's education policies require a full year of public hearings before the Legislature will let the policy happen. Meanwhile, legislators are rushing the Governor's much larger package of education reforms to completion with closed-door meetings and surprise amendments that opponents don't get to see or study until they get to the committee hearing.

If HB 1128 is a good idea, then canning HB 1234 and convening a task force to hold public hearings and study K-12 education is even better. Call your Senators (who all voted for HB 1128) and tell them to demand the same public participation in the Governor's much broader education reforms.