House Bill 1001 would pull South Dakota out of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, a non-profit formed in 1991 to help postsecondary institutions from the Dakotas to Missouri and Michigan share resources. Arguably MHEC is the interstate collegiate version of MCEC, the lately newsworthy Mid-Central Educational Cooperative, a non-profit formed in 1978 to help central South Dakota K-12 school districts share resources. However, MHEC also provides some services to K-12 schools.
From the time South Dakota joined MHEC in 2008 through 2014, South Dakota paid $665,000 in MHEC dues and received $1.08 million in savings on computer hardware, software, and insurance. Funding for dues came from the Governor’s Office budget for the first three years; when Governor Mike Rounds cut the MHEC line from his FY2011 budget and Senator Jeff Haverly forgot to put the MHEC dues appropriation into the Board of Regents budget, the Legislature picked up the tab through the Legislative Research Council. In an apparent example of Legislative inertia, the LRC kept picking up that tab until this year, when MHEC hiked dues to $115,000. Reviewing the cost-benefit analysis, legislators realized that since South Dakota insures its own buildings, the insurance savings that made up 45% of our prior savings don’t really count as return on investment. In FY2015, our $95,000 MHEC dues produced a mere $58,756 in savings, the paltriest return for any member.
We are thus outta here, say the thirteen Republicans on the Legislature’s Executive Board, who voted May 18, over the objection of the two Democrats on the board, to stop paying MHEC dues in FY2017. To achieve that end, HB 1001 repeals SDCL Chapter 13-53C.
Pulling out of MHEC would give Rep. Julie Bartling and Senator Larry Tidemann one less thing to do, as they currently serve as MHEC Commissioners. More importantly, it would save the state $115,000, which will cover the $8,000 Blue Ribbon raises for 14 teachers! Whoo-hoo! 650 more budget cuts like that, and we have the full $75,000,000 necessary to tackle the teacher shortage!