Action Alert: Contact South Dakota Senate Education Committee to Support SB 114
The Facts about the South Dakota Academic Freedom Bill
On Tuesday, February, 10, the South Dakota Senate Education Committee is scheduled to consider SB 114, an academic freedom bill to protect science teachers who want to help “students understand, analyze, critique, or review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the courses being taught.”
If you support academic freedom in science education, will you take a few moments to email or call members of the South Dakota Senate Education Committee TODAY and ask them to support SB 114? Let legislators know you think science teachers shouldn’t be fired, punished, or threatened simply for discussing both sides of scientific debates about evolution, climate change, and other controversial topics.
Time is running out, and your support is critical. The opponents of open discussion in science classes are pulling out all the stops to kill this bill. They claim SB 114 would insert creationism or intelligent design into science classes. It won’t. They claim the bill promotes religion. It doesn’t. They claim the bill is unconstitutional. It’s not. In fact, two other states (Tennessee and Louisiana) have already passed similar bills, and their bills have never been challenged in court.
Please let your voice be heard, and ask your friends and family to let their voices be heard. Below you will find email addresses and phone numbers for the Senators on the Education Committee.
South Dakota Senate Education Committee
Emails for Entire Committee
sen.soholt@state.sd.us, sen.frerichs@state.sd.us, sen.hunhoff@state.sd.us, sen.rampelberg@state.sd.us, sen.curd@state.sd.us, sen.greenfield@state.sd.us, sen.solano@state.sd.us
Individual Senator Contact Information
Sen. Deb Soholt (R-14), 605-321-5931, sen.soholt@state.sd.us
Sen. Blake Curd (R-12), 605-331-5890, sen.curd@state.sd.us
Sen. Brock Greenfield (R-02), 605-532-4088, sen.greenfield@state.sd.us
Sen. Bruce Rampelberg (R-30), 605-343-9703, sen.rampelberg@state.sd.us
Sen. Alan Solano (R-32), 605-342-8974, sen.solano@state.sd.us
Sen. Jason Frerichs (D-01), 605-938-4273, sen.frerichs@state.sd.us
Sen. Bernie Hunhoff (D-18), 605-665-2975, sen.hunhoff@state.sd.us