South Dakota's Senate Bill 112, which would, if enacted, provide that "[n]o school board or school administrator may prohibit a teacher in public or nonpublic school from providing instruction on intelligent design or other related topics," was killed in the Senate Education Committee on February 6, 2014, according to the Rapid City Journal (February 6, 2014).
The bill was killed at the request of its primary sponsor, Jeff Monroe (R-District 24), who told the Associated Press (February 6, 2014) that he decided that it was poorly written: "Some [members of the Senate Education Committee] agreed with the bill, but they would have had to vote against it, based on the fact that it was written poorly."
Monroe told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (February 6) that the bill "was getting too big for the amount of benefit that would come of it. ... I think there are better ways to do this that don't scare the daylights out of school boards and get everybody riled up." He also told the newspaper that he thought that students should be allowed to "see both sides."
"I'm not sorry to bid farewell to Senate Bill 112, which was flawed in ways that go far beyond its faulty drafting," NCSE's executive director Ann Reid commented. "But anyone concerned about the quality of science education in South Dakota should stay alert, in case a similar bill comes down the pike in a future legislative session."