South Dakota may soon raise the bar on education standards for your kids. The state is one of 46 on board with a proposal to develop uniform curriculum for all U.S. schools, and the standards would be more rigorous than many states use now.

South Dakota students are already held to high expectations when it comes to state reading and math standards. But soon, states may get together and develop the first-ever set of national standards for academic excellence.

"These won't be federal standards coming down to the states, but a state effort led up to the feds," said South Dakota Secretary of Education Tom Oster.

Oster says it's a few years out, but he and his counterparts in 45 states have told federal officials they'd like to see students learning the same curriculum in all U.S. schools, whether they're in Highmore or Hawaii.

"With the mobility of families and children it's important that when they move they're on the same page, same scope, same sequence," said Oster.

And there's an added bonus to this proposal; it would save billions of dollars in assessment costs, because each state wouldn't have to develop and pay to print their own tests.

"We can have one set of assessments and hopefully with No Child Left Behind the federal government will see fit to fund that assessment and take a heavy burden off the states," Oster said.

In South Dakota's case, that savings could add up to $5 million dollars; money that could be better spent on education.

Oster says the standards haven't been developed yet, but he hopes South Dakota lawmakers will adopt them once they are. The only states that haven't expressed interest in the national standards are Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas.