Critical Race Theory (CRT) is infiltrating schools across the country, threatening to instill children will a racist ideology. Some states are requiring “ethnic” studies programs that are riddled with Marxist concepts, and school boards everywhere are promoting CRT-infused information on their websites. We can’t let this happen here in South Dakota. It’s vital that we stop its spread through legislation.

During her 2022 State of the State address, Gov. Kristi Noem promoted anti-CRT legislation saying, “Our state supports opportunity for all. We don’t teach our children to be divisive and organize them into separate groups based on skin color. I am bringing legislation this year to enshrine these values and protect our students from hatred and division.”

Noem has been working with Rep. Sue Peterson, and now the bills are on their way. House Bill 1012 protects students and staff at universities from divisive concepts. It further specifies that institutions “may not use or introduce a course of instruction or unit of study that results 10 in a student being distinguished or classified on the account of race or color.”

Similarly, HB 1337 protects elementary and secondary students from political indoctrination. It prohibits schools from allowing curricula or instructions that promote divisive concepts or compels students or staff to “affirm, adopt, or adhere to a divisive concept.”

Both of these bills are necessary in protecting our children and the future of our state. CRT is inherently immoral and anti-biblical. It creates categories of the oppressed and the oppressor, which are usually characterized by race, and shapes children’s worldview so that they view one another in these terms.

It reduces every human relationship to a race-based power struggle. It does not value people based on the content of their character, but the color of their skin. While it aims to solve problems of racial inequity, it only creates new ones.

The theory even rejects the ideas of personal freedom and responsibility, which are fundamental to the fabric of our nation. The widespread adoption of this erroneous worldview will mark the end of our exceptional nation.

Public education in the U.S. is under attack, as activist educators are working hard to indoctrinate students with these dangerous ideas.  It’s time to use the power of the law to take back our schools.