Here's how my state of South Dakota is giving kids the education they deserve

In South Dakota, we are working to make sure that our children will be exposed to the best social studies standards in the USA. We are raising the bar in civics education in our state.

Our kids and grandkids have not been learning the basic founding principles upon which their country was built. They do not know about the ideals and the vision of our Founding Fathers. 

In the last century, the education movement has pushed to remove history and social studies in favor of what they deem "more practical pursuits." And more recently, the No Child Left Behind initiative and its counterparts have all but eliminated history and civics instruction in elementary schools in favor of focusing the entire day on reading and math. 

This has resulted in a severe decline in the teaching of social studies in this nation. A growing majority of Americans lack a fundamental understanding of this country’s government structure and our history. In fact, more than half of natural-born American citizens could not pass a citizenship test.