The Capitol dome in Pierre and Gov. Kristi Noem. KELO.com News graphic.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Gov. Kristi Noem has set aside $900,000 for new teaching materials she says should emphasize how special the United States is.
Wade Pogany, Executive Director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, said school boards are waiting on details.
“I’m still wondering to myself a little bit [about] what actually changes,” Pogany said. “We don’t know if there’s actually legislation. All we know is there’s an appropriation from the governor’s budget, and that’s to create curriculum materials for this.”
Noem has set aside $900,000 for the changes. South Dakota’s K-12 social studies standards are up for revision this year, timing that Noem’s incoming Education Secretary Tiffany Sanderson called “fortuitous.”
“We’ll bring together experts: historians, tribal representatives, educators and others to review what we currently have in South Dakota,” Sanderson told the House Education Committee last week.
Noem told lawmakers the state needs to “do a better job educating teachers” on the history of America and South Dakota during her State of the State address on January 12. She added “our common mission and key objective needs to be explaining why the United States of America is the most special nation in the history of the world.”
Her remarks prompted pushback from some in education, including Sioux Falls School Board President Cynthia Mickelson.
While the state sets educational standards, school districts develop their own curricula.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed to this report.)
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