News

N.C. House passes bill requiring college course on founding documents

By Alex Baltzegar, Carolina Journal, Published: March 24, 2023

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.

All students attending a college in the UNC or community college system would be required to take a three-credit-hour class on American government. The class would require students to read in their entirety the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers (five essays). Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address and 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 at Chapel Hill requires a three-credit-hour courses in “Global Understanding” and “Power, Difference, & Inequality,” but not one in American government.
UNC 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 leading proponent of the bill. Broggi successfully advocated for similar legisation that became law in South Carolina.
On the House floor, several Democrats spoke against the bill. Democratic Minority Leader Robert Reives said while he supported the concept of teaching civics he opposed the bill because he did not think it should be required in community college.
The Board of Governors would have the ability to remove the chancellor of a university and the State Board of Community Colleges could remove a community college president if their school failed to comply with the requirement.