Teachers Are Investments in Opportunities for South Dakota Kids

…and democracy is hard work!

My friends at Sioux Falls Democratic Forum, who also pay good money to advertise on this blog, graciously allowed me to hold forth on the competing proposals from Governor Dennis Daugaard and the Democratic Legislative leadership to raise teacher pay.

Bruce Danielson bravely tried to track my frenetic expostulations with his camera, but no video frame can contain my ardor for public education and paying South Dakota teachers what they deserve. You can see Danielson’s video of the entire presentation, plus Q&A afterward, on South Dacola.

Why do I get so animated about the teacher pay debate? It’s not my own financial well-being. It’s what I say around 29:30 as I wrap up my remarks:

I will say this as a teacher and as a friend of teachers: every good adult in the school is an opportunity for kids. Every good adult in that school is an opportunity for a kid to ask a question when they need to, to turn to someone for help when they need to, get a college recommendation, get a job recommendation, to talk about what’s going on at home. Every good adult in the school building is an opportunity for our kids, a resource, a gift, an investment in our kids.

And every teacher that we say goodbye to and take out of the system is a reduction in opportunities for kids.

That’s why you’re going to call SDEA this afternoon, that’s why you’re going to call your legislators, that’s why you’re going to call the Governor, and you’re going to say, “Governor, I appreciate your efforts, but the Democratic plan is better” because it makes us actually competitive in our wage, it taxes people more fairly, and it preserves and protects not just every job we have but every opportunity that our South Dakota kids have right now.

We’ve got the wealth to do that, now let’s have the will to do that. Let’s pass the Democratic plan and make this state work [Cory Allen Heidelberger, speech to Sioux Falls Democratic Forum, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 2016.01.15].

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Cameraman Bruce led off Q&A by saying video lottery was sold to us over twenty years ago as a way to fund education, but the revenues obviously didn’t translate into competitive teacher pay. How can we be sure that any new revenue approved this year will go toward teacher pay?

First, it’s important to note that, after the program, two former legislators reminded me of something we’ve heard from other sources: when South Dakota decided to legalize gambling, there was a lot of talk about using the extra revenue to boost education. However, the education lobby told the Legislature they didn’t want video lottery money earmarked for education. They felt that was just bad fiscal policy.

Barring earmarks or other state mandates, ensuring that any new revenue goes to teacher pay falls on three sets of shoulders:

1. Legislators will need to sustain the will every year to resist calls from other interests for a piece of the pie and keep appropriating the new money to the K-12 funding formula.
2. School boards will need to commit to using this new money to solve the major problem that we all agree exists and that we expect this new money to address: the teacher shortage.
3. Voters will need to make the use of this new revenue in every election from now ’til kingdom come. Voters will have to demand that legislative candidates vow to uphold the 2016 teacher pay deal. Voters will have to demand that their local school board members use the new revenue to keep up with teacher pay targets or give awfully good reasons for shifting that money to other priorities.

As I said to the Forum, democracy is always work. We don’t get to pass a plan this year, then put our feet up and let the plan work all by itself. Any plan we pass in 2016 will require constant care and commitment from legislators, local boards, and the rest of us so we don’t fall back into the mess we’re in now.