South Dakota
Lawmakers decline to endorse Noem-backed state library funding cut, school safety grant program • South Dakota Searchlight
Former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s education priorities continue to face setbacks in the Legislature, including proposals to cut funding for the South Dakota State Library and to put $10 million toward school safety grants.
The House Education Committee voted Wednesday to move the two proposals to the legislative budget committee with “do not pass” recommendations.
It’s a battle over priorities in a tight budget year, said Yankton Republican Rep. Mike Stevens.
The same committee last week shot down a Governor’s Office-supported education savings account bill, which would have used $4 million in public funds to pay for a portion of private, online or homeschool instruction costs. Republican leaders plan to advance related legislation.
South Dakota State Library
Noem had proposed cutting the State Library’s funding by about $1 million. The cut would lay off about a dozen employees and jeopardize programming and services local libraries depend on, several librarians told lawmakers at the Capitol in Pierre.
The Department of Education introduced a bill that would change the duties of the State Library to align expectations with Noem’s proposed budget cut.
Were it endorsed by lawmakers, the cut itself would be embedded in the state’s general appropriations bill, which is passed at the end of the legislative session.
State Library budget cut would hamstring local libraries, opponents say
Education Secretary Joseph Graves told lawmakers that key services would still be available if the funding cut were to take effect. That would include statewide training and technical assistance to libraries, Braille and talking book services for people who are blind and hard of hearing, and assistance with literacy programming and organization.
Opponents told lawmakers they doubted such services would be feasible without continued funding. Librarians said they were concerned about losing statewide interlibrary loan services, shared database access and other services. Representatives of local governments said they worried they’d shoulder the financial burden to cover such services.
The committee voted unanimously to move the bill on to the legislative budget committee with a “do not pass” recommendation.
Sioux Falls Republican Rep. Amber Arlint added that she was worried cutting state funds for the library would mean replicating programs and costs elsewhere in the state.
“We all serve the same taxpayers,” Arlint said. “So to cut services to balance our state budget just to pass them onto a different set of taxes is absolutely absurd to me.”
School safety grant funding
Lawmakers on the committee also voted 11-4 against endorsing Noem’s proposed $10 million grant program for school security upgrades.
Scott Rechtenbaugh, criminal justice service director with the state Department of Public Safety, said that although roughly 200 schools have completed safety assessments with the department’s School Safety Center since 2020, many don’t have funding to make recommended upgrades.
That jeopardizes student safety as school shootings continue nationwide and school safety threats increase in the state, he said. Rechtenbaugh reminded lawmakers of the 2015 Harrisburg High School shooting and a 2024 school threat in Winner. No one was killed in either event.
The grant would let the department distribute $2 million annually for surveillance cameras, panic buttons, doors and locks, fencing, gates, barriers and other security measures.
“I know there’s a lot of debate on, ‘Can we afford this?’” Rechtenbaugh said. “But my question is, ‘Can we afford not to?’”
The state Department of Education and the South Dakota Police Chiefs’ Association supported the bill. Dianna Miller, a lobbyist for the Large School Group, was the sole opponent.
“I hope, I pray our budget and sales tax will increase and we do the things necessary to get through this year, and then maybe the program would be ripe for it,” Miller said. “But the fact of the matter is that right now is not the time.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
google-site-verification: google9919194f75dd62c5.html
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 12, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 12 drawing
12-21-39-46-48, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
RAAPID CITY, S.D. — Incarcerated women will start moving into a new $87 million prison in Rapid City next month, a South Dakota Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed this week.
The medium-security prison will be the state’s second for women. The South Dakota Women’s Prison in Pierre has operated beyond its capacity for years, with dozens of people serving their sentences at the Hughes County Jail or in halfway house facilities.
The new prison in Rapid City, which was approved by state lawmakers
in 2023
, will add 288 beds to the state’s capacity. The Department of Corrections will begin transferring women there next month, according to spokesperson Michael Winder, who said the exact date of full operations won’t be released for security reasons
The prison includes a work release area, a mother-infant building that lets new moms stay in a home-like environment with their babies, a vocational training facility to be staffed by instructors from Western Dakota Technical Institute and 96 beds for chemical dependency treatment.
The majority of the women held in South Dakota prisons are incarcerated on nonviolent drug charges, and 97% have a substance use disorder diagnosis.
“Drug addiction is a disease that must be treated,” Corrections Secretary Nick Lamb said at Friday’s ribbon cutting, adding that “Through dedicated treatment space and the therapeutic community, women will receive the counseling support and skills that they need to break the cycle of addiction and successfully return to their families and communities.”
The mother-infant program
mirrors one launched a few years ago in Pierre
.
Mothers who qualify under security guidelines stay in a group home separate from the main prison facility with other women and children for the first few years of their child’s life. The program was launched by former Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko and was championed by Lamb in his first public conversations with lawmakers on the state’s budget committee during the 2026 legislative session.
Photo courtesy Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office
At Friday’s event, Gov. Larry Rhoden said family connections and parenting skills are key factors in rehabilitation. He framed the program as an extension of a commitment to the well-being of South Dakota families.
“This program gives mothers and their children the opportunity to build that foundation from the very beginning,” Rhoden said.
Rhoden also called out the vocational training, drug treatment and work release programs as vital to rehabilitation — and to public safety by extension. The state recently broke ground on a new $650 million men’s prison in Sioux Falls, which is set to replace the state penitentiary and is also designed to expand programming and rehabilitation.
When combined with pending policy recommendations from the state’s correctional rehabilitation task force, Rhoden said, the new prisons will help improve public safety statewide by reducing the number of people who return to prison within a few years of their release.
“At the end of the day, every person in our corrections system is a human being,” Rhoden said. “They are sons and daughters. They are mothers and fathers. People who’ve made mistakes but also have the capacity to change.”
Winder, the corrections spokesman, told South Dakota Searchlight that staff will spend the next few weeks training at the new facility in preparation for the arrival of inmates in August.
The state hired Eric Aldridge
to serve as warden in March
. Aldridge, who came to South Dakota after a stint as warden of a medium-security women’s prison in Troy, Virginia, said Friday his goal is to “to facilitate an environment, an atmosphere, a culture where people learn, they grow, they heal, and where people develop through dignity and respect.”
-
Milwaukee, WI2 minutes agoSquire Robinson leads a new generation of Milwaukee artists with his distinctly bold style
-
Atlanta, GA8 minutes agoInstant Takeaways From Atlanta’s Summer League Victory Against Boston
-
Indianapolis, IN20 minutes agoINDOT to close ramps connecting Interstate 65 and Raymond Street in Indianapolis
-
Pittsburg, PA26 minutes agoPittsburgh files lawsuit against fire truck companies over alleged anticompetitive schemes
-
Augusta, GA32 minutes agoTrain collides with tractor trailer at Grovetown railroad crossing on Katherine St.
-
Washington, D.C38 minutes agoDC nonprofit making millions of meals for the sick is set to expand – WTOP News
-
Cleveland, OH44 minutes agoCrews respond to 10-inch water main break in Cleveland; possible sinkhole reported
-
Austin, TX50 minutes agoHines snags Downtown Austin office high-rise for $733 per sf
