Bill pushes S.C. students to take classes on founding documents

S.C. high school and college students would be required to take classes on the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Federalist Papers under a bill being considered in the state House.

The bill updates an unenforceable, 91-year-old state law that requires classes and testing on the U.S. founding documents. That law includes a loyalty oath to the United States and calls for regulation of colleges by the state superintendent of education, who oversees only K-12 education.

The new bill eliminates the loyalty oath and puts enforcement of colleges under the S.C Commission on Higher Education.

The proposal was considered by a House panel Wednesday. A vote was delayed to allow the addition of amendments to allow online courses and remove the current law’s requirements that college presidents, school superintendents and principals be fired if they do not follow the law. Only school and college boards can fire college presidents and school superintendents.

State Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, chairman of the panel, said he backed the bill.

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council and a Coastal Carolina University trustee, told the panel that he had heard from University of South Carolina and Clemson University students who say their schools are not adhering to the law.

State Rep. Garry Smith, a Greenville Republican who sponsored the bill, has been pushing to update the law.

Last year, Smith helped spearhead a budget amendment that required the College of Charleston and University of South Carolina-Upstate to teach the U.S. founding documents this school year. That requirement was in response to the universities assigning gay-themed books to freshmen last year.

Spurred by a letter from state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, the Commission on Higher Education asked state colleges last month if they comply with the current law, which requires teaching the founding documents.

Only Coastal Carolina and Winthrop University said they require all students to take the classes, according to responses to the commission.

USC, Clemson and other schools said they offer courses that include teaching the Constitution and other documents.

The College of Charleston promised to be in compliance with the law by May 2016, and USC said it plans to start a course specifically on the founding documents in the fall.

No estimate of the fiscal impact of the bill was available Wednesday.

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Bill pushes S.C. students to take classes on founding documents."