Free is a very good price especially when it comes to adding new curriculum at South Whidbey schools.

With the state’s budget shortfall trickling down to school districts, adding a new curriculum can be expensive, and in some cases prohibitive.

But Dan Blanton, South Whidbey’s assistant superintendent, did some careful shopping recently and discovered an instructional civics program called “We the People,” a Constitution-focused program the federal government provides free to school districts.

Blanton told the South Whidbey Board of Education last week the curriculum will be tested in district schools next year.

“It will be a pilot program, a supplement to other social studies and history classes for fourth and fifth graders at the intermediate school, sixth and seventh graders at the middle school and all levels at the high school.” Blanton said.

Teachers at the Shared Schooling Cooperative and Bayview High School have also expressed an interest in the pilot project.

Blanton said “We the People” could complement the regular school curriculum by providing students with an course of instruction on the history and principles of constitutional democracy in the United States.

Blanton said the course has been used for advanced civics in some schools. He said he became familiar with the course through teaching it to his own classes while working in Alaska.

The curriculum culminates in a simulated congressional hearing in which students “testify” before a panel of judges. Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues.

Scholarships are available through the program for teacher training, Blanton said.

Since its creation in 1987, “We the People” has been taught to more than 26 million students.