House panel declares for the Declaration of Independence

Louisiana students may have one more thing to recite in their morning homerooms if House Bill 1035, which gets a full hearing before the House of Representatives next week, passes into law.
The chamber’s Education Committee voted 6-2 to approve a bill that requires fourth through sixth grade students to memorize and recite a 56-word passage from the Declaration of Independence.
Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, said she brought the bill because her daughter could not tell her what the Declaration, adopted on July 4, 1775, announcing to King George III the 13 colonies were breaking away from England, said even after studying it in school.
“America is an exceptional nation,” Hodges said. “What makes us exceptional are these documents.”
She complained about the state of civic education in the United States, noting that surveys show only a quarter of students who take the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam score proficient in civics.
“The Declaration of Independence is the cornerstone of our Republic,” Hodges said. “It is to our system of government ... what Psalms 23 is to the Bible.”
She testified the recitation only takes about 20 seconds and said having students learn it in 4th grade would help them commit it to memory for life.
Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, cautioned that he wanted to make sure the students understood the whole history behind the words instead of memorizing them without giving them with you thinking about it.
He brought up the gendered language “all men are created equal,” noting the founders did not think women or blacks deserved the same rights. “We only study some of our history. We gloss over some that is more embarrassing.”
Rep. Ed Price, D-Gonzales, worried about the potential for a lawsuit from a parents who didn’t want their children to recite the passage from the Declaration of Independence. He said schools are already under enough financial stress and that a lawsuit would put them under even more.
Price offered an amendment to let schools allow teachers and students the opportunity to recite the passage instead of requiring it. It failed 5-3 after an objection from Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge.
Hodges said she would take up an amendment on the House floor to provide an opt-out provision for those students who do not wish to recite it, as is currently the case with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Scott Richard with the Louisiana School Boards Association said schools are already required to study the Declaration of Independence, the
Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution in their social studies curriculum.