SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - After two hours of debate, the House Education Committee today defeated a bill that supporters say would have allowed South Dakota teachers the opportunity to examine skepticisms surrounding scientific theories in class.
One of the bill's sponsors, Representative Chip Campbell of Rapid City, says the bill would give teachers protection to challenge scientific information.
Campbell says it allows instructors to teach strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories. He called it an "academic freedom bill."
He says our children "need to know that doubt and skepticism, and not strict adherence to only one idea, is the very backbone of how science moves forward."
Executive Director of the School Administrators of South Dakota, Rob Monson, says the bill would allow teachers to bring any and all of their personal views on religion into the classroom. Monson quoted the bill "no teacher may be prohibited."
He says that if their religious belief is that the world is flat, then the students in that classroom will learn that the world is flat.
The measure was sent to the 41st day on an 11 to 4 vote