Louisiana House votes to require students to recite Declaration of Independence every day
The Louisiana House voted 70-23 to require students to recite a portion of the Declaration of Independence at the beginning of school every day in the fourth through sixth grades.
Currently, students are required to do very few things at the beginning of the day. Schools must give students and teachers the opportunity to pray and say the Pledge of Allegiance under state law. But no one is actually required to do either of these things when attending school.
In contrast, the recitation of this portion of the Declaration of Independence would not be optional under this legislation. It would be a mandate. And the portion of the document that students would have to repeat makes reference to a "Creator." Some believe it is a backdoor way of putting religion in public school classrooms.
Yet State Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Bossier City, insisted that was not the purpose of the legislation. Johnson along with the legislation's sponsor, Denham Springs Rep. Valarie Hodges, were the main backers of the bill.
"This is the creed of our nation," Johnson said in an interview. "It's essential to who we are as Americans."
House Bill 1035 also drew some opposition from the House's African American representatives. A few mentioned that not everyone -- particularly women and black people -- were considered equals to white men at the time the Declaration of Independence was written.
Black residents in some communities across the South were also required to recite the Declaration of Independence before they could vote in the pre-Civil Rights era. So the legislation rubbed some African American lawmakers the wrong way.
But Hodges said the sentiment of the Declaration of Independence -- and the reason for bringing the bill -- was to reinforce that everyone is created equal. She repeatedly mentioned that Martin Luther King Jr. had been inspired by the document.
"The founding fathers did not give us slavery. Slavery existed way before," Hodges told the rest of the House.
Before the legislation passed, Rep. Ed Price, D-Gonzales, tried to get an amendment attached to the bill requiring that students also recite a portion of King's "I have a Dream" in addition to that section of the Declaration of Independence. The House shot Price's amendment down on a 45-51 vote.
Other amendments to have students recite the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- which abolished slavery -- and a speech from the women's suffrage movement had also been drafted. But the Legislature voted to block those proposals from consideration on a 58-38 vote. So they weren't discussed with the whole chamber.
State Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, said she had more practical reasons for opposing the bill. She felt like it was another burden being placed on teachers by the statehouse in Baton Rouge. Lawmakers should stop trying to micromanage schools, she said.
The bill will now head to the Louisiana Senate. The legislative session ends on Monday (June 6). Since the bill is moving so late, it is not clear whether the upper chamber will take it up before the session's closure.
Read the exact passage that would have to be recited in schools below:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Originally Posted by Ron Paul
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