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SDEA Cheers Teacher Pay Victory; Skjonsberg Fabricates “Silent Majority” for Boss’s Bro and Monroe

The South Dakota Education Association tucks a good-sized Easter egg into my Sunday paper:

SDEA ad, Aberdeen American News, 2016.03.27, p. 8A.
SDEA ad, Aberdeen American News, 2016.03.27, p. 8A.

Again, “bold” in South Dakota means increasing a regressive sales tax, spending a third of the proceeds on property tax relief to buy the support of all those industry partners listed in the black box, and raising teacher pay from 51st to 45th in the nation. To say this plan makes history says a lot about just how bad our Legislature’s history is on support for K-12 education.

The ad does raise the question of whether “Be Bold” will become “Been Bold.” Did the education community use up all of its energy on this noteworthy compromise plan to raise teacher pay, or will SDEA and friends keep their momentum rolling with further necessary activism? We still need to replace the legislators who resisted this teacher pay increase with new legislators who vow to protect and enhance these teacher-pay gains and iron out the regressive imperfections of the tax system making those gains possible. We could stand to refer Senate Bill 159, the odious stealth vouchers bill that the Governor signed Friday that undermines public education even as we celebrate this hard-won increase in teacher pay. Democracy is never done; even as we stop to thank the folks who’ve helped us win one big battle, we need round up ammo and allies for the next fight, and the next one, and the next.

Meanwhile, Rob Skjonsberg, chief of staff to U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, tries to run interference for the opposite of bold committed by his boss’s brother State Representative Tim Rounds and State Senator Jeff Monroe in voting against House Bill 1182, the sales tax increase. Skjonbserg manufactures the conceit that Monroe and Rounds represent the “silent majority.”

If a majority falls in the woods but they don’t write their legislators about it, do they really make a difference?

The “silent majority” is a fallacy. It is projection. It is an excuse made by cowardly legislators who can’t admit that they ignored the polls and the calls and letters that ran two, three, four to one in favor of raising teacher pay and want to keep pretending that they are acting on what the majority want.

The “silent majority” does not practically exist in a democracy. Those who speak up make the difference. SDEA and its allies showed up. They made a difference. They marshaled a majority—a two-thirds supermajority, plus the Governor—to pass funding for teacher pay. That funding is fiscally regressive, but not as philosophically regressive as paying our teachers the least in the nation and letting our public schools and students suffer for our stinginess and neglect.

Skjonsberg has as little ground to claim that Senator Monroe and Representative Rounds represent some fantasy ether majority as I have to claim that I represent some vast silent majority who oppose stealth vouchers—which, interestingly enough, both Monroe and Rounds supported. The only majority that matters, that practically exists in a democracy, is the majority of us who cast our votes for or against these men in November.

And SDEA, you’re working to recruit pro-public-education candidates against both Monroe and Rounds, right? Be bold, and be quick: filing deadline is Tuesday.

18 Comments

  1. 96Tears 2016-03-27 11:22

    What makes history, and it’s not so historical, is SDEA succeeded in putting a full court press on the legislature with citizen lobbyists (who get brushed off as “tax spenders” by the people they lobbied). Congrats to the staff at SDEA for a job well done. Sadly, as this “victory” gets administered, it is not going to make much of a dent. Worse, when it dawns on teachers and the public that a 12.5 percent increase in the state sales tax rate got spent without increasing our state’s standing as 51st in teacher pay (remember, the rest of the nation doesn’t stand still just because South Dakota decided very reluctantly it was time to nudge forward), the quick political response will prevail for many years, “What??? You wanna another new tax already?”

    The editorial today in the worst daily in America, The Sanford Leader, whimpers about open meeting laws. Talk about a deficit in bold action! The mighty Sanford editorial board thinks it’s time to take another chip at open meeting laws. No doubt they’ll call upon the mighty resources of the S.D. Newspaper Association and The Associated Press to demand another half loaf of reform, knowing that they’ll get crumbs instead from Pierre. Just like always.

    Bold action in Pierre requires bold thinkers who think boldly about what’s good for the public and our society, instead of how to use their station in government and politics to feather their own nests. Or in the Sanford Leader’s example, how to placate the pro-GOP business class in Sioux Falls and still have an appearance of being concerned. This seems to the theme today on Dakota Free Press as we look at the latest about Stace Nelson, Gear Up and the teacher pay dilemma.

    I’m proud of Cory’s good works with this blog. I wish it reached out to the public as much as mainstream media has access (which is wasted). The public needs to be better informed in order to be motivated. If you want bold, settling for “okay” won’t cut it. You’ll need different public officials and you’ll need to light a fire under the asses of indifferent media managers and reporters.

  2. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-03-27 12:15

    The Daugaard administration with the help of the Republican dominated legislature some how found $ 46 million in the current budget to prepay some of our state debt obligations, then they turned around and took the future interest savings from these early loan pay-offs and handed the projected $ 16 million in interest savings to the counties.

    My question is…Where did this $ 46 million come from and is there another $ 46 million to be found? The true reality is that our “Silent Majority Legislators” failed us in finding the money in the current budget to pay for increased teacher pay. I believe it was there, but apparently it is easier to raise a regressive sales tax for kids and teachers than for counties even without the help of legislators like Monroe and Rounds, (which is politically conceivable, raising the sales tax for kids and teachers that is), but it begs the question to our “Silent Majority Legislators,” which is….”What have you done for us lately?”

  3. 96Tears 2016-03-27 13:46

    That’s why they call it the silent majority. Y’all just shut your pie holes and we’ll keep on pilfering state government.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-27 15:04

    Interesting turn of phrase, 96: the GOP is used to the idea of a silent majority because they want the majority to remain silent and let the GOP do its thing.

    I’m happy to have that Sioux Falls paper turn its resources toward pushing for something. More open government is part of the overall picture. But the SD Newspaper Association could do some good for open government by leaving the legal notices that it touts as a grand public service up for more than three months.

  5. Donald Pay 2016-03-27 15:27

    I’ve never been impressed with the SD newspapers or broadcasters associations. They have always been more interested in keeping their tax-free ad money than in pursuing journalism, and keeping their readers and viewers informed. Individual journalists have done a great job ferreting out stories from time to time, but real investigative work has never been a strong point in SD. Most of the big stories have been broken by non-journalists. I mean, really, why does it take and out-of-state person to break the story on the borehole test submission? It was a huge, huge story, given the history of the issue in South Dakota, but the entire journalism business seemed to go to sleep.

  6. Darin Larson 2016-03-27 15:36

    Skjonsberg is trying to give political cover to Rounds and Monroe obviously but his revisionist history combined with bizzaro world reality are riduculous.

    He first mentions that the discussion turned personal. What could be more personal than the education of our kids and the economic future of our state? It is a personal issue for kids, parents, teachers and those who care about South Dakota. This is not some abstract discussion of tax and education policy. When you starve the educational system for as long as these guys have been doing, you are darn right it’s personal.

    And to blame one side of the debate when some of the legislators who voted in favor of 1182 caught heck too seems selective.

  7. Donald Pay 2016-03-27 15:42

    Let me just add that North Dakota journalists seem much more interested in researching the borehole story. This story went on and on in the pages of Dakota Free Press from late-May until January, when the Department of Energy selected North Dakota for the test. Not once during that 8 month time frame did a South Dakota journalist call me or email me to find out any information on the story. However, within one week of the North Dakota announcement I had a North Dakota journalist calling for background information. There is something really broken about South Dakota journalism, and it’s been that way for a long, long time.

  8. Darin Larson 2016-03-27 15:49

    Skjonsberg also talks about the voters having rejected a similar proposal four years ago. Talk about revisionist history! The prior proposal dedicated half the money to Medicare reimbursement with no property tax reduction. How is that the same as 1182, 131 and 133? Hypocrisy is no obstacle for these folks either since they routinely try to go around voters.

  9. Darin Larson 2016-03-27 15:52

    Medicaid not medicare

  10. Darin Larson 2016-03-27 16:10

    Next Skjonsberg pits state, county and city workers against teachers stating that the former arguably are more undervalued than teachers. As I recall, The state has done market studies on state employee salaries and moving them to market rate salary structures beginning quite a few years ago. In addition, in every year in recent memory, the legislature has passed a budget that gave state workers the same percentage increase as what the schools were getting. This might sound fair at first blush, but consider that schools have to pay for all of their increased costs out of the same percentage increase. In other words, schools had to pay for increased health insurance and other inflationary costs. Only the net remainder could go to a teacher pay increase.

  11. grudznick 2016-03-27 19:14

    Mr. Larson, I believe many of the people decrying the 1182 bill are the same ones who wave fake scorecards around and make exaggerated claims about them, too. They think if they say things like “this is the same as the tax bill the teachers tried to jam down our maws a couple years ago and the people voted it down” it justifies their ignorance on some things. I have noticed that some of the insaner ones with scorecards were the most vocal against the 1182 bill. Those people need to keep getting Omdahled when they go home to their people.

  12. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-27 21:23

    Darin, I missed where the debate over HB 1182 turned “personal.” Maybe Skjonsberg is confusing that bill with HB 1008, the paranoid potty bill, where GOP neanderthals were bullying kids and insulting fellow members in floor debate.

    I think Republicans like Rounds and Monroe just aren’t used to hearing voters push back and demand action. They mistake disagreement for a personal attack… and disagreement probably feels personal, since they feel personally entitled to use the R in front of their names for cover to do whatever they want. Welcome to 2016, Tim and Jeff.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-27 21:23

    (Donald! The ND press tracked you down? From here or from other commentary? Those ND reporters evidently know how to track down expertise!)

  14. Mark Winegar 2016-03-27 21:42

    I stand with you Cory to fight for public education and against SB 159.

  15. Darin Larson 2016-03-27 22:40

    Yes Mr. Grudznick they do need to get Omdahled if that means to take your ball and go home. That paper as I think Corey refers to it had a story today of a number of the Omdahl mindset that are not returning to Pierre next year.

    Cory I don’t think the debate on 1182 was any more “personal” in terms of personal attacks than any other important contested issue, except maybe for the Schoenbeck/Gosch cage match. I think you are basically right that these folks weren’t ready to hear from voters so strongly that education is that important and their old underfunded model was crap. They were used to doing things their way and nobody calling them on it.

    I am hoping that some of these dinosaurs have realized their age has passed and they should get on with their extinction.

  16. leslie 2016-03-28 06:19

    well it doesn’t appear rounds cos can spell. is he related?

    “As opposed to the chair throwing that seems to take place all to [SIC] much in recent times.”

  17. leslie 2016-03-28 06:25

    this seems to be a recurring theme in SD, darin:

    “these folks weren’t ready to hear from voters so strongly”. e.g. name change process neutered by 1060

  18. Bobby Kolbe 2016-03-28 11:25

    Looks like The BRO & Monro are giving G E Ds a bad name.

Comments are closed.