DES MOINES, Iowa — From little league baseball games to the Super Bowl to now classrooms: that is what a new bill in the Iowa Legislature proposes for the national anthem.
House Study Bill 587 was passed through an education subcommittee on Wednesday. The bill looks to modify social studies curriculum for students K-12, emphasizing U.S. history, voting rights, background on the founding fathers and more. The bill doesn’t specifically require a student or teacher to sing the national anthem, but to stand if able and be respectfully silent.
“Is it an option to do every day? Is it an option to incorporate it into the lesson plan? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Semesterly,” said State Representative Henry Stone, (R) District 9 from Forest City.
Stone is a military veteran and he takes pride in patriotism and would like students to start having patriotism inspired by the classroom. The bill says that a verse of the national anthem should be sung every day, but he did say that that is open for change at the committee level.
State Representative Sue Cahill started off her comments at the subcommittee by requiring everyone to stand and sing the national anthem. Afterwards she outlined her concern with the bill, as is, because it may put teachers in a situation where they would have to take disciplinary action against students who don’t participate.
“Our teachers have enough to do right now without adding another requirement to implement and then handle consequences if students don’t participate correctly,” said Rep. Cahill, (D) District 53, Marshalltown.
The bill now moves to the Iowa House Education Committee, where there will be continued conversation on how or if lawmakers change the bill.