A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide citizens the tools to educate students in gradeS k‑12 on the skills they will need to be citizens in an increasingly pluralistic democracy. 
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
PART I.  TITLE OF ACT AND PURPOSE
SECTION 1.  This act shall be known as the "Preparing Our Students for Democracy Act of 2006."
SECTION 2.  The General Assembly finds that:
(1)	All students must be educated and prepared to live and work in a democracy and an economy with citizens from different religions, races, countries of origin, and ethnicities.
(2)	The foundation of a democracy depends on an educated citizenry who knows how these rights and responsibilities have been used and misused by Americans in the past and at present.
(3)	Students in K‑12 are more developmentally inclined to understand history through the footprints and the people of their own community. Students often lack an understanding of the relevancy of history.
(4)	History and social studies are the least tested and worst tested high school subjects in schools across the United States and in North Carolina.
(5)	There is a need for preservice teachers to gain additional classroom experience in the methods of educating for democracy at the very beginning of their teaching career.
(6)	Over the last 10 years, the Center for Diversity Education, located in the University of North Carolina at Asheville, has developed and implemented a model that uses community networks and regional history to enhance the North Carolina Standard Course of Study with research-based exhibits and programs that can be replicated in communities across North Carolina.
SECTION 3.  The purpose of this act is to provide for the initial effort to replicate the Center of Diversity Education in other regions of the State.
SECTION 4.  The General Assembly finds that it is appropriate to provide funding to the Center for Diversity Education to replicate the program in other regions across North Carolina through constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina and interested communities.  Therefore, there is appropriated from the General Fund to the Center for Diversity Education the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2006‑2007 fiscal year to develop a training institute at its office at the University of North Carolina at Asheville to educate citizens and teachers across North Carolina on how to replicate this program in their communities.
SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2006.