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May Should Call for Political Will, Not Special Session

Rep. Elizabeth May (R-27/Kyle) says she wants a special session for the Legislature to address K-12 education. She complains to KCCR Radio that there’s not enough time or information available during the regular session for legislators to properly address K-12 education. She says school districts like Rapid City can’t wait until 2016 for the Legislature to act.

Rep. May’s call for a special session will, of course, go nowhere. May is part of the Mugwump rump of the SDGOP that has no pull with Governor Daugaard, who would have no desire to convene a special session to do what his Blue Ribbon education panel is designed to delay our doing, and is mostly too iconoclastic and disorganized to build a majority coalition to pass legislation, never mind the two-thirds majority necessary to call a special session.

Even if Rep. May could round up the votes the call the Legislature back to Pierre for a few days this summer, they would be no less rushed to research, draft, and pass meaningful K-2 funding reforms than they are during their regular two-month winter session. Legislators could make plenty of time to tackle K-12 funding during the regular session if they would quit wasting their time with bad legislation revolving around guns, their culture war against the SDHSAA and transgender students, their assault on the young workers and the people’s right to legislate, and their general disdain for democracy. (And maybe we need to focus our legislators’ attention by going back to five-day workweeks during Session.)

A special session won’t fix K-12 funding any more than summer studies ad aeternum. All a K-12 funding solution takes is the will of Rep. May and her 104 colleagues to set the baloney aside and focus on issues that matter.

11 Comments

  1. Owen 2015-06-17 10:37

    Doesn’t Rep May want the special session called to being up Common Core? If so then they shouldn’t have one.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-06-17 11:02

    In the audio on KCCR, clip 3, Rep. May said she worries the task force is “not going to have enough information to ask the questions that need to be asked about these standards and assessments.” Common Core is clearly on her mind, but I fear that more focus on Common Core would be another example of the guns-gays-gut voting rights distractions that keep the Legislature from tackling big basic issues like K-12 funding and the teacher shortage.

  3. Fred Deutsch 2015-06-17 14:35

    Mugwump rump?

  4. larry kurtz 2015-06-17 14:41

    Expect the May, Deutsch nut wing to strike the words climate, genocide and evolution from high school curricula then mandate teachers carry guns.

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-06-17 14:49

    Yeah, Mugwump Rump!

    May and Deutsch are distinct wings.

  6. Fred Deutsch 2015-06-17 15:10

    Maybe that’s why they have us as seatmates -so the wings can watch each other.

  7. larry kurtz 2015-06-17 15:14

    That Fred is surprised that teachers’ take-home pay is nearly nothing means he’s unfit to hold office.

  8. CLCJM 2015-06-18 15:35

    I sincerely hope that this is not another stalling tactic and the BR panel will recommend a major shift in how we fund education. Until now, every discussion has been more of the same and more stalling!
    I also believe more consolidation should not even be on the table! I’ve watched what that does to our small towns, it kills them off! It removes jobs, destroys the sense of community and puts our kids on school buses when they could be studying, playing and being kids! It also makes it harder to participate in extra-curricular activities when they have to travel 20 miles or more to do so!
    So what is the reason all this has been happening for decades? The 1% doesn’t want to pay an income tax that would be based on income, ability to pay. No, they much prefer regressive sales taxes and fees that hurt the poor the most! Our Constitution is based on government of the people, by the people and FOR the people, not the 1%! Time for big changes in the way government is run in this state and education funding is just one of many big problems that need to be addressed!

  9. larry kurtz 2015-06-19 06:59

    As long as Republicans control Pierre teachers will be enemies of the state.

  10. CLCJM 2015-06-22 01:15

    I agree Larry! time for change!

Comments are closed.