Dana Hess writes for South Dakota Searchlight, an online news organization.

Churches that can afford the expense and have the ecumenical will can open their own schools. If some people have their way, soon public schools in South Dakota will have a stark resemblance to churches.

During this legislative session, lawmakers will consider Senate Bill 51, an act that will require the display in public school classrooms of the Ten Commandments as well as its inclusion in the school’s curriculum. The bill has made some headway, squeaking through the Senate Education Committee on a 4-3 vote. It was on Monday’s Senate agenda as well, where it was passed on an 18-17 vote.

The bill’s main sponsor is Sen. John Carley, a Piedmont Republican. Carley lists the commandments in his bill, adding that schools may use a similar wording. It’s odd, in the dry language of legislation, to read Carley’s version of the Commandments that goes full Old Testament, using “shalt,” “thou” and “thee.”

According to Carley’s bill, the Commandments must be displayed in a readable font on a document that’s least 8 inches by 14 inches. Adjacent to the display there must be posted an explanation of the historic significance of the Ten Commandments in education, from its inclusion in the New England Primer to the McGuffey Reader to textbooks published by Noah Webster.

Not satisfied with creating a religious display in public schools, Carley’s bill goes on to enumerate how it will fit into the school curriculum. His bill amends a law calling for schools to give “regular course instruction in the Constitutions of the United States and South Dakota.” That law called for instruction “at the opening of the eighth grade and shall continue in the high school to the extent determined by the South Dakota Board of Education Standards.”

If Carley’s bill becomes law, that board can take the day off. His bill requires study of the governments of the United States and South Dakota as well as the U.S. Constitution, the South Dakota Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Also included in that study are the Ten Commandments “as a historical and legal document,” whatever that means. (If the Ten Commandments is a legal document, all of us are in trouble.)

Carley’s bill goes on to mess with South Dakota’s years-long attempt to figure out its civics curriculum. SB 51 calls on the state Department of Education to have ready materials to support instruction in these areas once between first and fourth grade, once between fifth and eighth grade and once between ninth and 12th grade. It will be interesting to see what sort of take first-graders have on the ramifications of the Bill of Rights. Those essays can be displayed right next to their finger paintings of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

This isn’t the first time that the Legislature has mandated displays in schools. A 2019 bill required schools to display the phrase “In God We Trust” in a high traffic area. It cost the Rapid City School District about $2,800 to stencil the motto in the common areas of its schools. Carley’s bill will be a heavier financial lift for schools as it requires a display in every classroom, along with an acknowledgement of the Ten Commandments’ historic place in education.

The bill specifies that schools may accept donated displays that meet the requirements of the law. What it doesn’t do is provide any funding for the creation of those displays. Pardon school districts for not seeing the legislation as an attempt to put a spotlight on the historic significance of the Ten Commandments but rather for what it is, an unfunded mandate.

Waiting in the wings for the 2026 election is an initiated measure calling for students and teachers in public schools to recite a generic prayer at the start of each school day. If all this comes to pass, imagine what public schools will be like in 2027. In God We Trust displayed in the cafeteria, the Ten Commandments and its background in education on each classroom wall and everyone standing to recite a generic prayer. The next time the school orders desks, perhaps they should have built-in kneelers.

We ask enough of our public schools without requiring them to force-feed religion to students. It would be best if the Legislature adopted its own Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt nurture religion in the home and the church and thou shalt not inflict thy beliefs on the public schools.

Amen.