Governor Dennis Daugaard’s FY2018 budget proposes spending $290K more of state money on the Department of Education, even as it takes a nick on federal and other funds. The Governor also proposes adding three more employees to the Department of Education:
The Governor’s recommendation for the Department of Education reflects increases of 3.0 FTE and $290,097 in general funds, as well as decreases of $1,676,852 in federal fund expenditure authority and $150,000 in other fund expenditure authority. The total recommended budget for FY2018 is $16,375,872 in general funds, $186,342,326 in federal fund expenditure authority, $3,591,466 in other fund expenditure authority, and 187.0 FTE [FY2018 Governor’s Budget Book, 2016.12.06, p. 36].
At 187 FTEs, the Department of Education would be larger than the teaching staffs of all but maybe ten of South Dakota’s 150 public school districts.
But note: not all 187 of those DOE FTEs are in the K-12 bureaucracy. 22.5 belong to the South Dakota State Library. 44.0 work for the State Historical Society. That leaves 120.5 FTEs to coordinate state aid, manage standardized tests, certify teachers, and make sure no one else filches federal grant money to build a personal gymnasium. 120.5 FTE is still larger than the teaching staffs of 135 South Dakota public school districts. The $12.2 million the Governor proposes to spend on those busy bees’ functions is 79% more than the $6.8 million the Governor is proposing as a 1% increase in K-12 funding.
How will this budget be affected if Trump/Devos eliminate the Department of Education at the federal level?
It is extremely disappointing the such a bureaucracy failed to detect the massive fraud we know as GearUp despite a total failure to achieve any demonstrative positive result. We deserve a government we can have faith in.
The size of this bureaucracy coupled with the facts that it is unable or unwilling to detect fraud and apparently incapable or unwilling to raise student outcomes on line with those student outcomes which are education leaders in first-world nations – shows its incompetence.
Why could not the taxpayers receive the same miserable status-quo achievements with an education department staffed by 10 or 20 instead of 120?
Great article. Another ugly example that more government is not the answer.
@Mark correct me if I’m wrong (CAH); However, what makes the gear up scandal even more egregious, is that they in fact noticed problems several years ago and effectively let the corruption ride.
Excellent question, Super Sweet. Federal funding makes up 62% of SD-DOE’s general admin budget and 94% of the ed resources budget. A Trump-olution ate USDOE would crush SD-DOE.