Alex Baltzegar – On Wednesday, the North Carolina House passed a bill requiring students at state universities to take a three-credit hour course on the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents by a vote of 69-47.
House Bill 96 (H.B. 96) passed the state House, with all Republicans and two Democrats voting in favor of the bill. The two Democrats in support were Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, and Rep. Joe John, D-Wake.
Rep. Frances Jackson, D-Cumberland, sponsored the bill. However, Jackson voted ‘No’ on the floor.
Still, assuming the four missing Republicans would support the bill, H.B. 96 would have enough support to override a Governor Cooper veto if he chooses to do so.
All students attending a college in the UNC System or Community College System would be required to take a three-credit-hour class on American government. The class would require students to read the following documents in their entirety:
• U.S. Constitution
• Declaration of Independence
• Federalist Papers (five essays)
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
Students would also need to pass a final exam on these “founding documents, their historical context, and authors’ perspectives.”
Currently, UNC-Chapel Hill requires three-credit-hour courses in “Global Understanding” and “Power, Difference, & Inequality,” but not in American government.
UNC-Chapel Hill also teaches courses on “Comparative Queer Politics,” “Gender and Sexuality in Africa,” “Islam and Sexual Diversity,” “Animals in Japanese Religion,” “Global Whiteness,” and many similar courses.
Jameson Broggi, a U.S. Marine and attorney stationed at Air Station Cherry Point, has been a lead advocate on this bill. Broggi advocated for the South Carolina legislature to pass similar legislation. Governor Henry McMaster, R-SC, signed S.C. Senate Bill 38 into law.
On the House floor, several Democrats rose to speak against the bill. Democratic Minority Leader Robert Reives said he supports the concept of teaching civics but opposes the bill because he does not think it should be required in community college.
Broggi refutes this critique, arguing, “all associate degree programs at the community colleges require general education requirements—even strict programs such as an applied associate degree in engineering.”
Certain students may be eligible to “place out” of the requirement under the bill, including those who have passed an Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam.
The Board of Governors would have the ability to remove the chancellor of a university, and the State Board of Community Colleges may remove the president of a community college if their school fails to comply with the course requirement.
One current UNC law student, Charles DeLoach, who focuses his studies on constitutional law, said he thinks H.B. 96 is a good idea. In addition to law school, DeLoach has been active in Democratic politics.
This is a good idea https://t.co/u6ClKagYPt
— Charles DeLoach (@DeLoach_NC) March 16, 2023
UNC-Chapel Hill faculty were recently “flabbergasted” by the decision of the UNC Board of Trustees to establish the ‘School of Civic Life and Leadership’ (SCiLL).
Establishing SCiLL at UNC is an effort to “create a space for free speech, a culture of civic and open inquiry, in which we as a university and faculty members and other students would recognize members of political outgroups as friends to learn from rather than foes to vanquish,” Dave Boliek, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, said.
Given H.B. 96’s bipartisan support in the House, its fate lies in the state Senate. The bill only needs to gain Republican backing in the Senate to pass with a veto-proof margin.
SF Source Carolina Journal Mar 2023
In my senior lay (required to learn the US and state constitutions, twice, in public junior high and high school in Illinois in the late 1950s) opinion, of the documents listed only the Constitution of the United States of America of 1787 as since ratified and lawfully amended and/or modified ‘in pursuance thereof’ (Article VI, 2) is the ‘supreme Law of the Land.’ Based on particular personal ‘insights’ resultant of learning and practicing secular mind power methods since 1975, of the US Constitution only the Preamble clearly and concisely states the intentions, principles, purposes and spirit of the Founders who, intentionally or not (as religious as they were back then), embedded it with laws of nature and rules of human behavior.
Most of what is wrong in America today is the result of special interest groups deliberately ignoring the enforceability of the Preamble and it providing context (e.g., color and flavor) to all that follows it, for minority gain. In example, I can personally recall then President Ronald Reagan using the phrase “We the People” (global?) in place of the complete/correct “We the People of the United States…” in some of his speeches. In addition to huge undeserved tax cuts for the idle rich, such misspeak (and misquoting of those other documents) ultimately demeaned, diminished and weakened the US Constitution to the degree it fails to be recognized as the greatest plan for national government ever conceived and implemented, today. I think it’s even fairly reasonable to state: “As goes the US Constitution so goes humanity.”