The Board of Education Standards scheduled just one of its legally mandated four hearings on Governor Noem’s proposed radical revision of South Dakota’s K-12 social studies standards for a Saturday, when more teachers and working parents could attend and voice their opinions about the proposal. The third hearing was supposed to take place Saturday, February 11, in Pierre.
But with public opinion running hot against the standards, the board has decided to nix that Saturday meeting and move it to Friday, February 10, in Rapid City.
The move is logically consistent for the Noem Administration: they shut teachers out of the standards revision process to get the politically slanted standards the Governor wants, so now they are shutting more teachers out of the hearings.
Curiously, the board has changed the location as well as the date. Originally, the February meeting was going to happen in Pierre and the April meeting was going to happen in Rapid City. Now they’ve swapped locations, keeping the April 17 meeting date but moving that to Pierre. Moving February’s meeting to Friday the 10th in Rapid City ensures that conservative Rapid City legislators can attend the meeting (Legislature meets that week Monday through Thursday) and play their symphony of sycophancy for the Governor and the Hillsdale College standards factory. But the all-Republican Rapid City Legislative delegation could just as easily have attended the April meeting on their home turf, so changing locations just for their sake doesn’t seem to explain why the Board swapped places for the February and April meetings.
Perhaps the Board of Education Standards moved its February hearing to Rapid City so the board members are able to attend the Rushmore Outdoor Show, 10-12 February. Or perhaps the board members wanted to have a jumping off date to attend the Lewis Black, Off the Rails! performance, 17 February.
Realistically, perhaps the board “had a V-8 moment” when complaints of there being no lodging available in Pierre during the legislative session.
Moving the hearing to Friday from Saturday remains a problematice gesture to marginalize education professionals — but the standards never were about having input from education professionals.
You have to understand that these people don’t understand how the common working people of South Dakota live. Making it impossible for working people to participate in government policy is simply the way South Dakota government works. Why expect it would be any different for teachers or parents who want a quality and age-appropriate educational experience for their children? Someone who has a state airplane available every time “they” get an itch to hook up with Lewandowski wouldn’t know that the lowly masses don’t have such an easy time rearranging their schedules.
But, yeah, I can see that lodging in Pierre at that time of year is tight, but they should have known that when they planned the meeting dates.
It’s Nationwide, DeSantis just made it a goal to re-Hillsdale New College in Sarasota. He reset the board and put a Hillsdale boy in charge. He addresses it as anti woke. Now if you look up New College, the graduates go out into the world and are incredibly successful. They set up their own education at New College and it’s history is obvious. It’s a hundred times better than Hillsdale. Just wait USD, Noem has to out DeSantis DeSantis.
It’s sad but the little girly voiced shortstop is going for centerfielder. He want to be THE autocratic.
The latest public comments round called for has yet to be published on the Boards and Commissions site.
Curious they didn’t book the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City.
Several members probably want to attend the Sunday meeting of the Conservatives with Common Sense. We will try to have an Opening Rant that week in line with teachers and teacher pay for the SILT. I don’t know enough about social studies to talk about that, but teacher pay, yes.
What a great time to get a group of retired educators together to “meet and greet” the committee and West River Legislators with questions/comments. It might be good for the retired folks and the Legislators to LISTEN!
I dare say, if more active educators showed up for breakfast they might have a better say in the positions the shadow government takes, Mr. paladn. Screw those old retired bastards. I mean, if there really was a shadow government that hated teachers and was actively doing things.
Like our old friend Bill used to say…I’m just sayin…