Senate passes education censorship bill

Senate passes education censorship bill

Last week senators passed House Bill 1012, legislation that will have a chilling effect on academic freedom in South Dakota. The bill now goes to Gov. Kristi Noem for her signature.

The ACLU of South Dakota opposed House Bill 1012. The following comment can be attributed to Jett Jonelis, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager:

“Our country needs to acknowledge and reckon with its history of systemic racism — this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools. In the university setting, House Bill 1012 encroaches on principles of academic freedom that protect a professor’s right to make teaching choices without government interference. That’s because the First Amendment protects academic freedom and the right to share ideas, including the right of individuals to receive information and knowledge.

“House Bill 1012 creates more questions than answers and leaves South Dakota educators and administrators with the burden of navigating exactly what it means to comply with this law. It opens the door for a wide range of interpretations that could be used to chill free speech and academic freedom, discouraging open and honest discussions about systemic racism in classrooms and in higher education communities. That House Bill 1012 passed shows the very need for the types of discussion our government is trying to prohibit.”

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