Speaking of teacher pay, Bob Mercer posts some economic data that helps put South Dakota’s miserly teacher salaries in perspective:
Following the revisions South Dakota’s per capita personal income in 2014 was $45,279, ranking twenty-third in the nation and slightly behind the U.S. per capita personal income of $46,049 for 2014 [Bob Mercer, “South Dakota’s Non-Farm Economy Shows Signs of Waking from Its Nap,” Mitchell Daily Republic, 2015.12.31].
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis data on which Mercer’s report is based, South Dakota’s 2014 per capita income grew at the slowest rate in the nation in 2014, just 1.1%, compared to 3.6% nationwide. Blame our creaky growth on a 25% drop in farm income (diversify, diversify, diversify…).
But hold on a moment: even in a down farm year, South Dakota created $45,279 of wealth for every resident, 98.3% of the national per capita income. Yet in the 2013–2014 school year, we only managed to find $40,023 for each K-12 teacher. We paid teachers only 88.4% of South Dakota’s per capita income and only 70.7% of the national average for teachers.
Only two other states paid their teachers less than their per capita income: North Dakota (87.2%) and Virginia (close! 99%). Nationally, teachers earn 22.9% more than the per capita income.
If South Dakota assigned the same value to teachers as the nation as a whole—i.e., if we paid our teachers an average salary 22.9% higher than our per capita income—then in 2014, our average teacher salary would have been $49,202. We’d have ranked 34th in the nation for teacher pay, beat North Dakota, and be close to Nebraska and Montana. We’d also be more than a thousand dollars ahead of the Blue Ribboneers’ suggestion that teacher pay of $48,000 constitutes a competitive regional wage. (See and play with these numbers yourself on my online spreadsheet!)
If you think that raising South Dakota teacher pay $9,179 in one year is impossible, consider one more economic figure: we could generate the $86 million necessary to make that raise possible by increasing our statewide personal income growth by 0.22%… or, put another way, we could get that revenue by tapping South Dakota’s near-national-average wealth with a meager 0.22% personal income tax.
…speaking of which, don’t forget to vote in the Dakota Free Press poll on proposals for 2016 legislation! As of 10:35 CST this fine, sunny Saturday, corporate income tax is leading the ten-idea field; personal income tax is fifth. Vote now—poll closes Sunday morning at 6 a.m.!
It’s nearly impossible to guilt a Republican. Even harder to rationalize them with facts and statistics. It’s best to just threaten them.
Exactly Porter. Except the threaten part. They might be carrying.
Actually when you throw facts at them they change the subject and then start calling you names.
All us liberals might be carrying. It’s like the mule and the two by four. First you have to get their attention.
But as an aside: No teacher thinks violence is a threat worthy of first resort. However, there are threats that haven’t been explored. If a petition was passed among teachers asking the national teacher’s union for help with being last in USA in wages and the nat’l union decided that every year they would single out the bottom two or three states in wages and make a recommendation that no teacher should accept a job in those states until the situation was properly addressed that would be a threat to the Republicans in Pierre that would soon be responded to. You can’t guilt ’em and you can’t reason with ’em but they DO NOT like to be embarrassed on a national scale. In a year or two the teacher shortage would mean something and Republicans could put their response, “Make me pay you more, if you think you’re worth more!!” where the sun don’t shine. The issue would be resolved and the union could do the same for the next couple states at the bottom.
South Dakota educators deserve a fair deal. That is the bottom line. The establishment that is responsible for this inequality should be embarrassed. Daugaard and company are guilty of malfeasance.
We have the lowest wages and have average income per person. At first this does not make sense at all. Then I remember that we have banks with huge deposits and bank income. Does that in any way get to the common person? If you spread corporate income over individuals you will get something that does not affect standard of living or wage comparisons. But you do find the money and that is a place to tax. Go for corporate taxes.
And so did another myth, SD is a poor state, shatter.
Porter, your union boycott if SD is interesting (albeit close to an illegal strike), but what new reasoning would NEA have for the young idealists that has not been given to those teacher candidates going into education for quite a while now? What has grabbed some attention in our legislative leaders is not fairness or market corrections, but the loss of opportunity of students. Now that schools range from having-great-difficulty to not-at-all-able to hire teachers for open positions, there is some real attention being given to teacher recruitment and retention.
I think the whole history of how SD funding and staffing has thwarted traditional market forces is a rich mine for academic study. That we have a shortage now is not surprising; that it took this long to fully manifest is. Our model of “big bang for little buck” was oft a self-congratulatory cheer. Now that the market seems to have spoken at a level no longer ignorable, the gross totality of those market forces have to be addressed.
Reading Mercer’s piece left me asking the question, “who is doing well?” Our minimum wage workers are not bringing up that average. Even the $20.00 an hour farm workers are not bringing up that average. Teachers are not bringing up that average. So, who is?
The Heinous Teacher’s Union is dying. They should order a strike right now to get some people’s attention, because it’s likely the raises for good teachers that will be coming from the BluRT-F will have strings attached like you can’t be a member of the HTU to get a raise.
The way to pay good teachers more is number 3 of Mr. H’s laws for the legislatures. Repeal all the sales tax exemptions.