Dana Hess writes for South Dakota Searchlight, an online news organization.

As South Dakota voters get ready to wade through seven ballot issues in November, more are lining up for the 2026 election.

Already turned in to the Secretary of State’s Office are two ballot issues. One calls for fair market value for assessed property and another seeks to require that students in kindergarten through grade 12 start each school day with a recited prayer.

The prayer initiated measure is sponsored by Hillel Hellinger of North Miami Beach, Florida. It would require teachers to lead a non-denominational prayer and for students to repeat the teacher’s words. Teachers and students who do not want to take part would be able to opt out.

Hellinger’s prayer isn’t exactly an impressive piece of adoration: “Almighty God, who is aware of His creation, who keeps it going and judges it, please have mercy on us.” There’s more grace and poetry in a government regulation or a cookie recipe. Trying to offer a prayer where one-size-fits-all, Hellinger leaves us with an ecumenical husk.

The content of his prayer aside, his venue has to be questioned. As society has declined, our schools have been overloaded with tasks. The duties we have assigned to schools include, but are not limited to, combating bullying, offering counseling on a raft of ills, providing lockdown training, handling all manner of special education, monitoring for child abuse and providing two-thirds of students’ daily meals.

Prayer is best handled in church or in the home. Attempts to instill a formalized prayer in schools are based on the fact that there’s no way to control what happens in the home or in the church. Schools can be told what to do because they’re dependent on taxpayer funding. We used to ask our schools to educate our children; now we’re asking them to raise our children.

According to an interview with Hellinger in The Dakota Scout, he knows that passage of his initiated measure would lead to a court fight. That’s what he’s counting on. Given the current conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, he believes there’s a likelihood of a favorable decision. He’s not starting with South Dakota because we’re raising heathens who desperately need more prayer. He’s starting here because he needs just 17,509 signatures to get on the ballot.

“South Dakota is the easiest state to start with,” Hellinger told The Dakota Scout.

Of course, if Hellinger’s initiated measure becomes state law, South Dakota will have to take on the burden and expense of defending it in the courts. In effect, Hellinger has picked South Dakota to fight his battles for him and pick up the tab as well.

Slipping a moment of prayer into schools was tried recently in the South Dakota Legislature. In 2020, the governor’s office sponsored House Bill 1015 which would have allowed a moment of silence for all students at the beginning of the school day. A vote of 9-6 in the House Education Committee sent the legislation to the 41st day, killing the bill.

The bill was offered as a way for students to get their thoughts in order at the beginning of the day. They could pray if they wanted or just enjoy a moment of silence.

As might be expected, the bill was opposed by a long line of education lobbyists. The most compelling testimony came from Rob Monson, executive director of the School Administrators of South Dakota. Prior to his testimony, Monson paused for a moment of prayer, noting in his testimony that no one compelled him to pray. He did it because he wanted to. Students, Monson said, are allowed the same prerogative in school.

“Prayer has never been forced out of the public schools,” Monson told the committee. He was the first but not the last education lobbyist to ask the committee what the moment of silence bill does to benefit education. The same question should be asked of Hellinger’s initiated measure.

Anyone who thinks there is no praying in school has never suffered through a pop quiz in algebra class. As one lawmaker said of HB 1015, this is a solution in search of a problem. Let someone else fight Hellinger’s battles. Our schools have enough to do without taking on religious education, too.