On January 21, 2020, a bill (Senate Bill 59) was introduced in the South Dakota legislature that would, if enacted, prevent teachers being “prohibited from helping students understand, analyze, critique, or review, in an objective manner, the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information presented in courses being taught” in accordance with the state’s science education standards. Bills containing similar prohibitions were also introduced in the legislature in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019, but did not pass.
Science education groups have expressed concern that Senate Bill 59 (and other similar bills) will undermine science education by giving teachers greater ability to question proven scientific theories. Senate Bill 59 appears to be targeting evolution and climate change. It uses identical language to a 2015 bill that identified “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, [and] human cloning” as controversial subjects that “cause debate and disputation.”
Update:
Senate Bill 59 died in the South Dakota Senate Education Committee on January 30, 2020, when a deadline for bills to be reported out of committee passed.