An ‘‘alternative facts’’ science bill in South Dakota was recently defeated in the state Senate’s education committee. It was the first of four similar bills introduced in 2017 in state legislatures to die.

SB55 would have allowed teachers to teach anything they want as science, as long as they used certain language.

There are three other bills in state legislatures at the moment that would allow science denial in classrooms: Indiana’s Senate Resolution 17, Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 393 and Texas’s House Bill 1485. Since 2014, at least 60 ‘‘academic freedom’’ bills — which permit teachers to paint established science as controversial — have been filed in state legislatures all over the country..

There was strong opposition to the South Dakota bill from the science and education communities.

Washington Post