Last updated on 2022-02-26
Teacher pay led the questions at Saturday’s Aberdeen crackerbarrel. Aberdeen superintendent and Blue Ribbon Task Force member Becky Guffin thanked Rep. Al Novstrup (R-3/Aberdeen) for his support of House Bill 1182, then asked teacher-pay-naysayer and former teacher Rep. Lana Greenfield (R-2/Doland) to provide specific alternative sources of funding that could be used to support teachers and kids.
Rep. Greenfield spent very little time addressing specific funding alternatives. Instead, she said HB 1182 has been a very “disturbing” issue for her. She said she’s received lots of e-mails saying “Shame on you” and “I’m so disappointed,” plying the blame-the-victims line that I’ve been hearing from other HB 1182 opponents who apparently don’t like being criticized for their bad votes.
Rep. Greenfield outlined her main reasons for opposing HB 1182. She said HB 1182 is a tax bill, with no mention of teachers. She repeated the hoary old (false) complaint that we passed video lottery on the promise that the revenue would go to K-12 education and then were cheated. She said the 2012 initiative vote against the penny sales tax for education and health care obliges her to respect “the will of the people” and not vote for a half-penny sales tax dedicated to teacher pay.
Rep. Greenfield then complained that the Governor appointed mostly big-city people to his Blue Ribbon K-12 panel. I count eleven out of 26 small-towners—I’m counting Madison as small, and Vicki Harmdierks works in Mitchell but lives in Wessington Springs. Without breaking down how many of those “big-city” Blue Ribboneers are small-town kids at heart (Armour’s Venhuizen jumps to mind, but I’m sure Lana sees Tony as a city clicker), 15 out of 26 members being “urban” (curious: how many of you South Dakotans feel urban?) is about 58%. The eight biggest counties in South Dakota constitute 58% of our population. eleven small-towners on a statewide committee isn’t that bad a split.
But hey, Rep. Greenfield isn’t going for specifics. She’s not explaining exactly why the ideas Supt. Guffin and teacher Steve O’Brien and thirteen other city-clickers reached consensus on with their eleven small-town counterparts are flawed; she’s just grasping for some narrative to justify her partisan obstinance.
Rep. Greenfield then cribbed Senate Jeff Monroe’s ploy and said the Blue Ribboneers found that the low pay was not as big a problem for teachers as being overworked and not having enough prep time. Rep. Greenfield is referring to the Ingersoll data that the Blue Ribbon K-12 panel heard last summer:
Rep. Greenfield reversed the order: lack of prep time was #1 and too heavy teaching load was #2. Low pay tied with too large class size for #3. Rep. Greenfield ignored the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recognition that Ingersoll’s survey was not South Dakota-specific: as the Blue Ribbon report says on page 13, “The survey data is nationwide, and the task force acknowledged that low salaries are probably a more significant factor in South Dakota. Unfortunately, no similar data exists that is specific to South Dakota.”
And even if we let Ingersoll’s non-South Dakota data dictate our problem-solving priorities, Rep. Greenfield offered no plan for helping teachers with those first two problems, probably because increasing prep time and reducing class sizes would require even more money to hire more teachers. Rep. Greenfield just keeps insisting that the third problem—the problem which the Legislature can most directly address—isn’t worth Legislative action.
Then, seemingly afraid that Blue Ribboneers like Dr. Guffin will take her opposition personally, Rep. Greenfield claims that the pending legislation isn’t the Blue Ribbon plan at all but something the Governor’s office composed either before, during, or after the Blue Ribbon panel met. Rep. Greenfield does not substantiate this claim. The Governor’s initial endorsement of action on teacher pay on January 12, 2016, and the three bills introduced on February 2, 2016, mostly copy, with a few added details, the proposals laid out in the Blue Ribbon panel’s final report issued on November 11, 2015. No member of the Blue Ribbon panel, including vocal HB 1182 opponent Rep. Steve Westra (R-13/Soux Falls), has come forth to say their exercise was a complete charade and that the Governor’s people had already drafted the bills last spring.
Rep. Greenfield is trying portray her opposition to raising teacher pay as a brave stand against a dictatorial Governor and critical fellow legislators. Rep. Greenfield alleges “brutal” arm-twisting in Pierre to pass this bill. She alleges “people were hauled in behind closed doors and they were scolded and they were made promises in order to keep this bill moving forward.” She accused Rep. Roger Solum (R-5/Watertown) of voting for Rep. Lee Schoenbeck’s (R-5/Watertown) amendment on sending some of the new sales tax money to the vo-tech schools to raise his own pay. She moaned about getting mass e-mails saying, “How dare you!” and Rep. Schoenbeck going hard after her anti-teacher vote on the radio and on Facebook and that Sioux Falls paper putting opponents’ faces in the paper.
Oh my gosh—a legislator thinks publicity is a bad thing?
Rep. Schoenbeck is giving HB 1182 opponents both barrels on Facebook… but what—does Rep. Greenfield think she should be immune from public debate and criticism? Does she find it unfair that her negative vote has negative public consequences?
Rep. Greenfield did endorse the argument the Democratic caucus has offered that the Governor’s Blue Ribbon plan is bad for small schools because it pressures them to cut 400 teachers (maybe 631 teachers) or consolidate. However, Rep. Greenfield ignores the fact that the pressure for those cuts lies in the funding formula in Senate Bill 131, not in the funding mechanism of House Bill 1182. She could vote for House Bill 1182 to raise the money for schools, then amend SB 131 when it comes to the House to better accommodate the needs of the small schools she claims to be defending. Or she could come out and endorse the Democratic plan, Senate Bill 151, which has funding mechanism and formula all in one neat bill.
Rep. Greenfield also co-opted the Democratic argument that it is unfair to tax “working people and the poor.” Instead she would rather we fund teacher pay with video lottery money… which comes even more regressively from working people and the poor.
Rep. Greenfield said any new money must be earmarked for teachers. On Thursday, Rep. Schoenbeck offered Amendment 1182of, which dedicates 64% of the proceeds of the sales tax increase to increasing teacher salaries. That sounds like an earmark to me. However, Rep. Greenfield voted against that earmark amendment, and she voted against HB 1182 in full with that earmark amendment. Rep. Greenfield either forgot about that amendment or lied to us at yesterday’s crackerbarrel.
Rep. Greenfield ended with a firm declaration that she will stand her ground and not be part of “this blatant corruption.” Wow—EB-5, GEAR UP, the flag theft, and Rep. Greenfield calls raising taxes to raise teacher pay “blatant corruption”? Now Rep. Greenfield is just singing in the shower, putting some kind of Mr. Smith Goes to Pierre mask on her cowardly inability to overcome her ideology and solve South Dakota’s #1 policy problem, our destructively low teacher pay.
$20 says there’s something in the water that makes all republicants teacher haters.
Could this come to a referendum?
Cory, do you know how Greenfield voted last year on the youth minimum wage bill she mentioned in her “will of the people” speech?
Lana Greenfield posted this on her facebook page. There is power in numbers: Please call the Governor’s office at 773-3212 and share your concerns about the infiltration of people who could possibly pose a threat to our well-being. Encourage that we stand with other states that are suspending of these refugees. (or maybe not refugees at all!)
1 · November 16, 2015 at 3:00pm
(or maybe not refugees at all!) Could that mean those darn LGBT terrorists that also pose a security threat? Some blend in and it can be scary! HB 1209 failed this time but by golly we are gonna get em in 2017!
Corruption with teacher pay! Join Lana & Brock at Greenys where we will lock & load and stand our ground & defend the American way as God intended!
Dagburnit!
Yesterday in Highmore we got the “SB131 is bad so I can’t vote for HB1182” line from Rep. Tim Rounds. I told him that in a month I’ll be calving a herd of cows and planting wheat at the same time and he has to learn to do two things at the same time too. I came away with the impression his feet were dug in but he also assured the biggest crowd ever at a Highmore crackerbarrel that HB1182 would pass on Monday. No thanks to him, apparently wants the best of both worlds.
I’m told by a reliable source that amendments have been prepared for the cuts to the general bill required to free up the money HB1182 would have raised. It isn’t a pretty sight.
Mr. Outta Ridge, if the bill passes it is possible that Mr. Gosh fellow will get up petitions to have it referred.
http://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/RollCall.aspx?Vote=19422&Session=2015
Greenfield voted yea, hallelijah, hot damn and stick it to the little basses.
Nick, good answer to Tim. I’d love to see the cuts (besides Rep. Russell’s in HB 1130) being offered as the alternative to HB 1182. Yesterday Jennifer Gray, exec at Aspire, said one of the alternatives she’s heard is cuts to Medicaid providers. She asked if any of the legislators at the front would support cutting Aspire to fund the Blue Ribbon plan, and Rep. Al Novstrup said “No” and “Hell no!”
Mike! That’s Lana’s vote on the youth minimum wage! Thanks for answering Brandi’s question and pointing out Lana’s selective respect for “the will of the people.” That same vote shows she’s just as selective in her concern for “the working people and the poor.”
Sorry. I was all broke up because Jebya dumbass dubya quit running for Potus.
The Blue Ribbon Committee might be a good place to encourage quality legislative candidates (regardless of party affiliation) that you can find common ground. They invested in better policy and should clearly see how extremists break the system. Getting just a few more reasonable legislators (3 to 5) as a start could do wonders for the state.
As Grudz notes, Ridge, opponents of HB 1182 or any other portion of the Governor’s K-12 plan could refer it to a vote. One advantage of the Governor’s strategy of dividing the Blue Ribbon plan into separate bills is that if all components pass and opponents refer only the funding mechanism, or if opponents refer all components but voters only kill the sales tax but not the changes to the funding formula and other statutes intended to raise teacher pay, the state would still have in place the mandate to raise teacher pay, and referrers, rather than stopping the pay increase, would simply blast a hole in the budget that legislators would have to fill.
Note, however, that if HB 1182 does not pass, we cannot put it on the ballot for a public vote.
Happy Camper,
The problem is the system is broken and we have nuts on both sides including at least one flame thrower running for office that if elected would not get anything done once there.
Too bad there is not a common sense party started that is more reasonable, and really into practical problem solving rather than trying to solve problems that don’t exist.
“All my care is you, and all my pleasure yours.”
“Oblivion – what a blessing…for the mind to dwell a world away from pain.”
“It’s perfect justice: natures like yours are hardest on themselves.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
My was hope that there is enough common sense left in South Dakota to pass the sales tax issue in a referendum vote.
Democratic state senator, Bernie Hunhoff believes much more work needs to be done on funding education in South Dakota and that South Dakota should institute a corporate income tax in order to raise funds for education.
The tens of millions in the unsustainable costs of administrating 66 county seats and six four-year regental universities serve as part of pay-to-play political cronyism in a state that purports to be conservative.
http://southdakotaprogressive.blogspot.com/2015/08/hawks-hunhoff-sddp-leaders-agree-income.html
What is her salary?? Let us compare!! It is pretty bad though relative of mine has to move to Wyoming leave the state of South Dakota where her family lives to make double the pay shame on you Mrs Green!
When media in South Dakota need a Democrat in the state to speak about actions in Congress they have nobody to call. It won’t be Rick Weiland or Pat Duffy or Bernie Hunhoff or even Bob Burns and it certainly won’t be South Dakota Democratic Party’s new chair, Ann Tornberg or vice-chair, Joe Lowe.
KELO teevee chooses to quote Al Franken (D-MN) when it needs a statement.
So, who will it be? Cory Heidelberger? Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether? Anyone? Bueller?
When there are Democratic Party chairs in Harding, Butte, Ziebach, Corson, Clark, Douglas, Faulk, Haakon, Hutchinson, Jackson, Jones, Potter, Sully, and Todd Counties i will think about sending another effing cent to a South Dakota Democrat.
http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2014/12/south-dakota-media-have-no-democrat-to.html
Pass a corporate income tax, end video lootery, reduce the number of South Dakota counties to 25, turn Dakota State University into a community college, and adopt my template: the kurtz solution painted on a thumbnail.
http://southdakotaprogressive.blogspot.com/2015/09/with-political-will-south-dakotas.html
South Dakota needs an executive who would go to Pierre, treat the sewage and flush the culture of corruption into Lake Sharpe.
Honestly? I believe there isn’t a single Democrat in South Dakota with the gonads to do that although Cory Heidelberger would make an excellent governor and he’s used to living in s— hole towns like Pierre.
http://southdakotaprogressive.blogspot.com/2015/10/shs-as-governor-waste-of-resources.html
But, applaud Greenfield’s efforts diverting attention from her party’s culture of corruption where murders and their covers up are commonplace by clogging the legislative session with christianic religionist argle-bargle.
Ridge, I’d like to think voters would be ready to pass such a measure if Gosch and friends lost the House vote and referred a successful HB 1182 to a public vote. I believe that same majority would elect legislators who are ready to replace Lana and the other legislators who are trying to extend South Dakota’s cheating of its teachers and neglect of K-12 education.
Pamela, I’d love to trade regular teacher pay for Lana’s gig. She gets $6,000 for the Session, plus a $123 per diem for every day of Session, whether she’s in attendance or not, plus mileage. Just the salary and per diem make $10,920 for two months and a day in Pierre. Multiply that by 4.5 to get a nine-month school year (Lana can say she does Legislative work outside Session, matching the teachers’ rightful claim that they work through the summer), and we get a yearly equivalent of $49,140… which is still more than the $48,500 that Lana is unwilling to vote for for teachers.
(Larry, the biggest holes I’ve lived in have been towns outside South Dakota.)
(When I become Governor, I will expand the Capitol for a Day program to make the Governor’s office 100% mobile, able to to do all business from any corner of South Dakota. I will also get President Sanders (or President Herseth Sandlin, depending on the timeline) to repeat President Coolidge’s Summer White House idea of 1927 in the Black Hills… but I will spend zero public dollars stocking Grace Coolidge creek with extra trout for the President.)
Cory,when you become guv I will meet you in Dakota Dunes and we can stone Round’s residence and watch the Mighty Mo wash it away.
Mike doesn’t have a house there yet, does he? But we can go visit Dan Lederman and Lisa Furlong and throw them lifejackets as the waters rise.
This bill does exemplify how just a couples of votes from two more centrist legislators would have given the state something it really needs and what many on the left have been demanding, so rather than look at centrists with disdain it would be wiser to look at them with tentative fondness.
Worth noting Lynn it took Bernie Sanders quite a while to find his path yet he’s been a legislator since 1990. They wouldn’t have kept sending him back if he wasn’t effective.
All the earth haters in Pierre are flame throwers: some just throw more flame than the others.
Democrats, however have zero to lose by being revolutionary.
Anyone who says they could raise teacher pay without paying taxes is a person who did not raise teacher pay the last few years on that budget. So now when they say they could you know darn well they absolutely do not intend to, or they would have already. This excuse that they could raise it without a tax is just a lie.
It is all just a set up so the democrats can win next year.
Let’s get rid of some dss employees to pay teachers better. They are the largest bureaucracy in the state and every year are wrapped in the most controversy.
Bingo Roger. If the budget had lots of fat they would have trimmed it in the past few years, no?
It seems to me that the problem with the GOP party in Pierre is that they have too many of their own legislators to govern. Sounds counter intuitive, right? They have done such a good job electing their own that they brought in too many who want to undercut their ability to govern. Replace some of those folks – like the one in this blog post – with Democrats and government will work better for both parties and for the public. Just like in Warshington, gridlock is brought about by the extremists.
Lana has very good points. The behavior of education is an embarrassment after they lost the vote. The supprters of this tax and spend bill have resorted to being bullies. This leads me to believe their is no reason for this bill.
What kind of example does this behavior send to our young people?
Cory I have a question.
Westra said that South Dakota ranks second on school reserves in the nation. But, of course, he didn’t give his source.
Laura Hubbel said we were number 1. Still have heard her source as well. You know anything about this?
Mr. reitzel, like I warned that the robber barons had more tricks up their sleeves, mark my words that Messrs. Westra and Gosh have some up theirs that will be aimed at those districts that Westra berated on the floors of the legislature. His voice almost squaked with rage and I feared he might shake his fists at the galleries of people surrounding him. Oh, they have plans to punish the school districts, those two do.
Lana is right, it doesn’t specifically mention ‘teachers’ in the bill just ‘education funding’ and it only mentions that once.
Is it true this bill came directly from the Governor’s office and legislators didn’t write it up? That would be a red flag to me. SD governors don’t have a very good record of integrity now do they. Then ‘reducing property taxes’ was slipped in there also. How peculiar.
The bill should be way more specific in wording in that it should say that the money from this tax should specifically go to teacher salaries, not education funding. ‘Education funding’ is too broad and ripe for corruption which SD govt is notorious for. Education funding could mean building a new school in Sioux Falls. Then again, is it just wishful thinking the wording ‘teacher salaries’ in the bill would not mean a darn thing either?
Good eye, Jenny.
Notorious indeed. There are no doubt some poison pills of a nefarious nature buried deep within this bill, but Mr. H with his keen acumen for all legislature goings on will ferret them out and get them amended when it goes for its next vote.
It’s time to hit Cory’s tip jar, my sisters.
Yes, I sent Cory a check last week.
“I’d love to see the cuts ”
Daugaard’s budget is $128 million higher than what was spend in 2015. You don’t have to cut anything in order to give the teachedrs $56 million and crony capitalists $51 million.
“which is still more than the $48,500 that Lana is unwilling to vote for for teachers”
Cory, HB1182 does not give $48,500 to teachers. It increases sales tax to the working poor by 12.5%.
“Replace some of those folks – like the one in this blog post – with Democrats and government will work better for both parties and for the public.”
Democrats don’t have enough discernment to work for the good of the public, or else they would not be supporting this tax increase on the poor that will be used to fund crony capitalism.
Jenny nice to read that you have gained discernment.
Sibby makes a good point: fill the county chairs, Democrats.
Mr. Sibson, it seems you are engaging in French math.
FYI, I posted nothing that wasn’t published and distributed by the state. If Lana Greenfield doesn’t want her cell phone number public then she shouldn’t have provided it for publication in the Legislative Handbook.
Sibby, if you watch what Mr. H does to try and get elected to the legislatures, you could then follow suit without the flailing of arms and do so yourself. I, for one, advocate for you to go to Pierre.
Ms. Greenfield is just bitter and lashing out, Mr. Winegar. You are correct that she put her numbers out there and by golly, if she doesn’t want to make the tough decisions then she shouldn’t blame the Senators or the people who are mad that she isn’t representing them.
I will give her one point, she was not sent there to cowtoe to the Governor. She was sent there to do the will of her people and if her people agree with the Governor, then the young lady should shut yer yap and vote yes. I wonder if Brock is really controlling her vote behind the scenes. “Get in the car, mommy, we have to drive to the next stop.”
Broad spectrum autism disorder: look no further than Mitchell, people. The James River is just another vector.
Cowtoe, Lar. Cowtoe.
“I, for one, advocate for you to go to Pierre.”
Why would I want to go to Pierre? When I vote conservative, my family may receive verbal abuse like some of those who voted against HB1182.
Toughen up, Sibby, and stand by your principles or vote the way your constituents want you to. You can’t have it both ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P81uQr5al4s&list=PLCvVBOK6lIHvFv5rVBVTp811wASEs6HaY&index=40
Okay folks, if you start listening at 35:30 to an amendment to HB 1182 proposed by Rep Mickelson. What do you think? He proposes 20% extra funding from the state go to school districts and that 85% of that 20% has to go directly to teacher salaries and if districts don’t do that they get penalized and 50% of it has to be returned Got to give Mickelson credit, at least he’s trying to get something done. I probably trust him more than Schoenbeck.
Schoenbeck rattles on after Mickelson and that’s why I mentioned him. Then it gets entertaining when Rep Bolin starts hootin’ and hollering about corruption and siphoning money away from teachers.
You do have to admire Mr. Bolin for going out with a haircut like that.
Schoenbeck is salivating when he talks about grabbing those future millions for his district. Gimmee gimmee gimmee
When you have two stick-armed fellows like Messrs. Bolin and Schoenbeck locked in an Indian leg-wrassling match it takes somebody like Mr. Mickelson to come in and clock their heads together. I guess we shall see tomorrow who’s head pops like a brown urban chicken egg.
Sam2:
Lana has very good points? Name one. All I heard was misrepresentation of the facts. Her biggest fib was the reference to the Blue Ribbon panel poll on teacher grievances. She forgot to mention that it was a nationwide poll that suggested teacher pay was #3 on the grievance list. In SD, teacher pay is the #1 grievance. How she gained office is a question her constituents need to explain.
Jason
I was at a cracker barrel yesterday with legislators from Districts 10 and 25. All of the House members there voted against 1182 I believe. They caught heck from the standing room only crowd.
The spotlight of hypocrisy beamed brightly that morning. Rep. Haugaard justified his vote against 1182 based upon the will of the people four years ago when they voted against a tax increase for education funding. I assume he will not vote in favor of the payday lending industry’s bill, 1161, which usurps the will of the people before we even get to vote on initiated measure 21.
Rep. Langer seated two seats down from Rep. Haugaard does not believe in respecting the will of the people because she is the prime sponsor of 1161. She politely explained why the payday lending industry is so important that it deserves to pray on poor people even if the citizens of South Dakota pass the 36% rate cap.
All of the legislators agreed on the importance of education and the need for more funding, but they don’t like 1182 for various reasons. It was very telling that not one of them had an alternative education funding bill, amendment or even a plan drawn on the back of a napkin.
Actions speak louder than words. Rep. Langer cares so much about the payday loan sharks that she admits that her bill, 1161, negates the whole state’s vote on IM21 and that is what she intended to do. She, along with Reps. Hagaar, Haugard, and Hunt care so little about education funding that they have not done any work on legislation concerning increased funding.
SD is 4th in road maintenance funding per capita, but most, if not all, of these legislators that I saw voted for the tax increases last year for road funding. SD is 44th in per capita funding for education, but these jokers don’t think that education deserves the same consideration as even road maintenance.
Darin: correct! All House members from 10 and 25—Haggar, Haugaard, Hunt, and Langer—were nays on HB 1182 Thursday. I’m glad to hear the crowd gave them what-for.
Haugaard is repeating the same false “will of the people” line that we hear Greenfield offer above. Let’s assume then that he and Greenfield will use that line to bring Langer around and vote against HB 1161 tomorrow, which is the payday lenders’ latest effort to subvert the will of the people.
Great point, Darin, that Langer can exert herself to come up with a great plan for the payday lenders, but she has no plan for teacher pay. Whoever challenges her for that District 25 seat should repeat that line over and over.
Langer’s plan for the teachers is apparently they have ready access to 550% APR financing to get them to the next month!
Cory, I think you have a good chance of winning your election if you continue to support Daugaard and deny the culture of legalized corruption in Pierre. You would have a better chance of winning if you would switch parties.
Yeah, Cory: run as a Libertarian.
Lana Greenfield is not speaking seriously of corruption in Pierre. I am, and I am running with integrity as a Democrat.
Supporting the Governor’s plan as a pragmatic compromise where no one else is willing to fight for the superior plan is not equivalent to supporting Daugaard. He is responsible for continuing the Mickelson–Miller-Janklow-Rounds neglect of K-12 education for five years. Daugaard is responsible for allowing the Rounds corruption of EB-5 and GEAR UP to continue until both exploded in grisly deaths. Daugaard is responsible for countenancing the corruption and incompetence in the Secretary of State’s office (right next door to the Governor’s office). Governor Daugaard has waited six years to spend his enormous political capital on restoring K-12 funding to the level it would have been at if he and Rounds had followed the law and kept supporting K-12 to levels dictated by statute and good sense. He deserves as much credit for this plan as the guy down the block who lets dog poop pile up in his yard all summer then finally comes out one hot smelly day and promises to clean up most of it if we’ll loan him some plastic bags to put it in.
Guilty of first not listening to the clip doesn’t she make an entirely valid criticism the initial bill in no way guaranteed the money would go to teachers? So strange wasn’t that the point of the committee. People are leery of money just being thrown in the general direction.
Hap, yes, the initial bill did not send the money to K-12. The Schoenbeck amendment and the bill on which Rep. Greenfield did.
So is Schoenbeck the new leader of the South Dakota Democratic Party? Mercer said he organized a joint caucus.
Not yet. I’ll work on him, but I don’t think I’ll be able to bring him over. Schoenbeck is a Republican, and he appears to be seeking leadership of the Republican party.
Schoenbeck would fit in as leader of both parties. He is basically playing that role in the House today. Talking about one party rule. Conservatives have been bullied out of the legislative restroom by Schoenbeck, for being the wrong gender…sort of speak.
Hey! Didn’t I see her shining Al Novstrup’s shoes???
I’m all in for a raise in teacher pay and am willing to pay the 1/2 cent increase–if it does indeed raise teacher pay. Do we absolutely know that the teachers will get the raise once the money comes in to the state?? and, will ALL schools and their respective teachers in the whole state of South Dakota benefit from this tax increase?? Or, do I misunderstand this proposal.??
Ds and Rs are just letters. Cory was once a Republican. Was he a completely different person? It doesn’t mean anything. You all are gonna have to make decisions together.
Ds and Rs are letters that spell “tax and spend liberal bullies”. The corrupt system in Pierre is about to get even bigger.
Hap is right. I don’t think I’ve been registered Dem for as long as I was registered Repub yet. But then I also wasn’t paying a heck of a lot of attention during most of that R time.
MK, anything can happen. HB 1182 now has a provision requiring that 63% of the money go to K-12 teacher pay, 34% to property tax relief, and 3% to vo-tech teacher pay. SB 131 has a provision now dictating that schools that fail to use at least 85% of the new money they this year for teacher pay lose a big chunk next year. The Legislature is putting in teeth. Keep watching, see what form the final bills take.
And remember: once we enact a plan, all the heat voters are putting on legislators at crackerbarrels will turn to their school boards. If a school board fails to use the new money for teacher pay, I would think we’d see pitchforks.
caheidelberger
Cory
Another question. How does this bill play into consolidation of small schools? I remember when Janklow – Rounds – now Daugaard – pushed for school closings and consolidations by limiting funds to those schools that bucked the idea. Could they with-hold the teacher pay incentives unless small schools consolidate? I’m not saying some schools shouldn’t consider it if they have 2 students in Kindergarten. But, then I could see this bill benefiting only big schools in Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Harrisburg. We have had two opt-outs in our district. Now, they want to build another gym. Our enrollment is less than it was 15 years ago. In rural small towns, we are in trouble. I don’t know the answer; because young graduates are flocking to the larger cities and out of state for better jobs and better opportunity of choice and promotion. I don’t blame them at all. South Dakota is going to become victim to larger corporate-farms and industries/wholesale corporates and online shopping/business which employ less people which in-turn affects main street.
M.K.,
You have stated the current agenda well. This link provides an overview:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_liberalism
Legislative teeth for teachers/schools.but none for crony embezzlers. Sounds wingnuttishy.
The corrupt system in Pierre is about to get even bigger.
Sorry,Sib,but you ain’t got a prayer of getting elected. :)
Mike, you are right. Both parties want bigger government so they can rip off the people.
Sibby,you are wrong. I never said anything other than you can’t grow the corruption because you can’t get elected.