N.C. legislature passes pledge bill

  RALEIGH (AP) – The General Assem*bly approved Tuesday a requirement that school districts set time daily in classrooms for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and to teach class*es about its meaning.
  But the Senate’s unanimous approval of a House version of the bill didn’t oc*cur until the chamber deadlocked over whether to fight to get its own proposal approved – and created hard feelings among Senate members and with the House.
  “It really hurts to see what we are do*ing,” said an emotional Sen. Dan Clod*felter, D-Mecklenburg, on the Senate floor. “I don’t think we can continue to conduct business that way. It’s not the country I was born into.” Last year, the Senate approved a bill that would require school districts to provide a time each day for students to recite the pledge, require more educa*tion about the flags and North Caroli*na’s symbols and motto, including the values and principles they represent. The current law only encourages daily rec i t at i o n .
  But the House declined to take up that bill, deciding instead to approve a near*ly identical bills that left out the values p rov i s i o n .
  Neither bill compels anyone to say the pledge.
  The House measure returned to the Senate, where it was sent to a committee that seldom meets, prompting com*plaints from Republicans and conserva*tive Christians that the Senate was try*ing to kill it.
  On Tuesday, the bill went to the Sen*ate floor, where Sen. Julia Boseman, D* New Hanover, the primary sponsor of the Senate version, urged colleagues to reject the measure so that it could be sent to a conference committee to work out differences.
  She criticized the House bill as “a po*litically motivated bait-and-switch” that hurts children because it removes pro*visions promoting civic education de*signed so they “can better appreciate the rewards of democracy that they so thoroughly enjoy.” “It really is a dirty shame that has come to this,” said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland.
 


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