South Dakota
Noem’s attempt to 'prioritize education' gets failing grade • South Dakota Searchlight
Soon Gov. Kristi Noem could be installed as the next Secretary of Homeland Security. In one of her last official acts as governor, Noem managed to instill some uncertainty in South Dakota’s public education system.
During her budget speech, Noem claimed she wanted to continue to “prioritize education.” Notice that she didn’t say “prioritize public education.” In what was likely her final budget address to the Legislature, Noem proposed an ongoing $4 million expenditure to help families pay for private school tuition and other forms of alternative instruction.
Her largesse toward families seeking to pay for a private school education came during a budget address in which she:
- Offered a paltry 1.25% funding increase for the “big three” of health care, public education and state employee salaries.
- Unveiled $71.9 million in budget reductions and discretionary changes.
- Included in the budget cuts a $2 million reduction for the Board of Regents and a $3.6 million cut for South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Noem proposed that the state would pay about $3,000 per student annually for private school tuition or alternative instruction. Private schools, homeschoolers and other forms of alternative instruction operate under a different set of rules. It’s a veritable wild west of schools that can be unaccredited or accredited by someone other than the state. In other words, good luck figuring out how your tax dollars are being spent.
It’s probably possible to figure out how much money the state of South Dakota has invested in public education since statehood. Instead of doing the math, let’s just assume it totals in the billions of dollars. It seems at cross purposes for the state to make that kind of long-term investment in public education only to turn around and start funding its competitors.
Instead of tackling the bigger issues in public education, Noem has revved up the Legislature for a fight over an idea that’s trendy in conservative circles. It’s also an idea that the state can’t afford. Any state budget that proposes tens of millions in cuts isn’t likely to have a spare $4 million. If there is $4 million extra in the state budget, it should be funneled into teacher salaries.
Through neglect and short-sightedness lawmakers and the governor have let teachers’s salaries sink back near the bottom of the barrel nationally. Noem’s proposed 1.25% increase in education funding certainly isn’t going to do much to get South Dakota’s national teacher salary ranking out of the basement.
With its low teacher salary ranking, South Dakota’s universities find themselves training the next generation of teachers for the surrounding states that make a greater attempt to pay teachers what they are worth. When qualified teachers become harder to attract because of South Dakota’s low salaries, school districts will be forced to cut their offerings, hamstringing the very education that Noem says she has gone to such great lengths to “prioritize.”
The last time South Dakota made any progress in this area was in 2016 when Gov. Dennis Daugaard led an effort to raise the state sales tax by half a percent with some of the funds dedicated to raising teachers’ salaries. Since then, lawmakers have cut the state sales tax and mandated a $45,000 minimum salary for public school teachers without offering any extra funding to help schools reach that goal.
Given the state of the budget Noem proposed, lawmakers would do well to put their efforts into protecting public education and finding a funding source that could ensure that the state’s teacher salaries are no longer a national embarrassment.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Families in South Dakota work hard. We sacrifice a lot and ask very little from the people who govern us. We expect honesty, careful budgeting, and leadership that puts our interests above politics.
In his recent budget address, our governor painted an incomplete picture. He celebrated good results but did not explain what and who made those results possible. South Dakotans deserve more than selective storytelling. We deserve the truth.
South Dakota
Rep. Dusty Johnson backs Senator Rounds push for investigation into mail service in South Dakota
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) -Congressman Dusty Johnson is backing Senator Mike Round’s push for an investigation in postal service delays in South Dakota.
Johnson took to social media saying Senator Mike Rounds was right to ask for an investigation into postal service delays in South Dakota. Rounds had previously sent a letter to the postal service’s inspector general asking for her to find the cause of mail delays in South Dakota. Rounds said in his letter he has heard from hundreds of constituents across South Dakota. Johnson opened up with KOTA Territory News about his support for the investigation.
“I think the postal service is a terrible disaster,” said Johnson.
Johnson noted that in the past the service did what he said was a pretty good job. Johnson says despite sending letters and making phone calls with the postal service, he has not gotten any answers.
“I have asked if I can come down to one of their facilities, get a tour so I can better understand what’s going on behind the walls. They have refused to even let me, a member of congress, come learn about how they conduct their business. And so, this appears to be an enterprise that A, is not improving, B, isn’t communicating why there, why there failing and C doesn’t even appear to be particularly interested in getting better,” explained Johnson.
Rounds has pointed to the problem as being that mail traveling across or into South Dakota taking indirect routes. Rounds previously took a meeting with the postmaster general however the senator appears not satisfied with the outcome.
Rounds wrote in part in his letter, “I expressed my concerns about this to the Postmaster General (PMG) Steiner who downplayed such issue existed in South Dakota.”
In a letter sent to Rounds in October, Postmaster General David Steiner said that fixing issues at central region plants in Chicago, St Louis and Kansas City will likely improve outcomes and that at the time it was something the USPS was actively working on. The postmaster general acknowledged poor performance for first class mail at the beginning of the year and mid-summer but noted that it has since improved. During the week ending September 19th for South Dakota’s postal district, about %93 percent of first-class mail was delivered on time and roughly %97 percent was delivered within one day of its expected arrival. The postmaster general said he wanted to focus on the %3 percent that’s not getting to its destination on time.
“It may be only a small percentage of the mail, but because we deliver hundreds of millions of pieces each day nationally, the raw number is large,” wrote Steiner.
Steiner emphasized that some mail in South Dakota has always left the state for processing before going to another part of the state. The postmaster general explained that some mail requires certain sorting equipment and therefor some mail travels to plants with the right equipment.
The postmaster general also maintained in his letter that mail going to and from the same area in South Dakota is not leaving the state.
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