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SDEA Endorses Sutton as Status-Quo Noem Snubs Teachers

The South Dakota Education Association wholeheartedly endorses Democratic candidate Billie Sutton for Governor. SDEA notes that when its PAC, SD-EPIC, invited gubernatorial candidates to speak to their members, “Billie and one other candidate, Marty Jackley, accepted the invitation to talk about their vision for public education in South Dakota.”

In other words, Republican nominee Kristi Noem cares less about education than Marty Jackley.

For that ignorant snubbery, Noem gets a frowny face from the teachers on their six-point summary of why South Dakota should elect Billie Sutton:

SDEA's six points for Sutton, in SDEA 2018 Voter's Guide, p. 7.
SDEA’s six points for Sutton, in SDEA 2018 Voter’s Guide, p. 7.

While Sutton actively supports education at all levels, “Kristi will keep education on the back burner like usual.” Given that education is the single biggest chunk of the general fund and the biggest part of nearly everyone’s property tax bill, we can’t have a governor who won’t talk to teachers.

And remember: Kristi Noem is the candidate who staged a “parent-teacher conference” at a grocery store on a school day at two in the afternoon, when no teacher could attend.

Sutton for schools—Sutton for Governor.

30 Comments

  1. Jason

    The SDEA is not about educations Cory so the below statement by you is false.

    “In other words, Republican nominee Kristi Noem cares less about education than Marty Jackley.”

    The education curriculum is not done by the SDEA.

  2. Jason

    When is the last time the SDEA supported a Republican Governor candidate?

  3. Probably the last time a Republican candidate showed more genuine concern for education than the Democratic candidate.

    Jason’s first comment is a non sequitur. Billie and Marty showed up to talk to teachers. Kristi did not. Marty apparently cares about education and speaking with education practitioners than Kristi does.

  4. Jason

    Like I said earlier, the SDEA is not about education. You can talk to teachers without talking to the SDEA.

  5. OldSarg

    My wife is a member of the SDEA. She says she is only a member because the other members are nasty to you if you are not a member. To know how ineffective the SDEA is you only need to look at the pay gap of teachers in our state. The majority of the dues SDEA collects goes to the national union and is not spent in our state other than to mail out fliers that only support radical leftist candidates, laws and ideas.

    SDEA does nothing to improve education. As a matter of fact, the SDEA is a supporter of Constructionist Math. Most of you, not educated in math pedagogies, would call it “discovery math”. I would take any endorsement by the SDEA as another of their ignorant decisions to support something they do not understand or want to understand. They are not educators but rather just another leftist PAC.

  6. jerry

    Are Jason and oldsarge an old married couple? So widdle Russian and Russian really enjoy their borscht together, charming couple. Their children probably attend a Saudi school for etiquette classes.

  7. leslie

    Prolly not, jerry. Sarge has told us his wife is Asian if I recall. But sometimes his actual posts are barely literate, sometimes lifted from his minders, as here, big words and all. he is a composite. a troll.

  8. jerry

    May be, but, as the Russian describes her as being a member because “members are nasty to you if you are not a member” That sounds like widdle Russian, a follower, or the Good Wife.

  9. mike from iowa

    SDEA does nothing to improve education.

    And yer wife is a member, huh? Correlation or causation or caucasian trolling?

  10. mike from iowa

    Ever notice how these jokes write their own jokes without any outside stimulus?

  11. bearcreekbat

    Jason starts the comments with another completely false statement, claiming that the SDEA is not about education. Here is the SDEA’s mission statement:

    A professional organization working hard for educators, so they can continue to work hard for our kids. SDEA members provide a wide range of professional education services in communities throughout the state.

    We teach in kindergarten classrooms and college lecture halls. We counsel adolescents and assist in carving out career aspirations. We drive school buses, prepare for careers in education and prepare school lunches. We direct school plays and coach soccer. We provide professional services that benefit students, schools and the public in virtually every position needed to run South Dakota’s schools.

    Whether you call us your union or your professional organization, we have a long and wonderful tradition that spans over a century. Since our founding, SDEA members have been at the center of every struggle to advance the finest of American dreams – a high quality public education for every child.

    And here is what SDEA stands for:

    Advocating New Directions for Public Education

    The SDEA works with our state’s elected officials to ensure the best possible outcomes for students and members. Recent accomplishments include improved teacher pay across the state of South Dakota.

    Influencing the Decision-Making Process at Local, Regional, State and National Levels

    The SDEA works with local leaders to promote increased education funding for a safe and secure learning environment where students are comfortable and eager to learn, and by seeking out the best teachers and education support personnel for South Dakota’s schools.

    Strengthening the State’s Education Workforce

    All South Dakota educators benefit from the work of the SDEA, who makes the state’s education workforce stronger as a whole. Empowering Educators Across the State Through professional development sessions and trainings, the SDEA encourages all educators to continue to develop their craft with hands-on learning.

    Buildings, busses, classes and curriculum.

    Schoolbooks, pencils, homework and grades. Parents and teachers. Budgets. Taxes. It’s easy to get lost in the details when we consider everything educators do to provide the best education for South Dakota’s children. The SDEA encourages you to pause and remember: It’s about our kids.

    https://www.sdea.org/about/our-mission

    It is enjoyable to debate with others who have different ideas about how we should be governed and what our goals ought to be. At times Jason has actually made some interesting arguments worth exploring and debating. Yet his repeated lies get very tiresome. If this were my blog I would block any statement by any blogger that is uncontestably a flat out lie or misrepresentation, with no link or other support for the false claim.

    While this would result in losing many of Jason’s comments, it would eliminate the waste of time required to call out his lies and provide accurate information. And yes, Jason, that means this very post responding to your lie about the SDEA is a big waste of time. Instead of inviting a meaningful discussion of the uncontestable factual matters, your lie has lead to the necessity of posting a link documenting the actual facts – a public statement documenting the actual mission and goals of the SDEA.

  12. o

    Jason and OldSarge are now experts on SD education . . . awesome. Yet again they use GOP tribalism
    to hijack a discussion about policy. Their objection would be to any who give the power of a collective voice that speaks to the inadequacies of their tribe.

    Before the attempt to derail the discussion (as usual), I wanted to comment on how wonderful it is that more and more Republican candidates are being recognized as pro-education. It has been the detriment of education that education has become a partisan issue here. While education is seen as a “democrat” issue, the opposition party, the GOP has to then be seen against it. That silly, restrictive view has made it more difficult for EVERYONE in SD. Now that we see that education is certainly political but not partisan, real movement forward can happen. (Unless obstructionists those like Jason and OldSarge have their way)

  13. o

    OldSarge: “To know how ineffective the SDEA is you only need to look at the pay gap of teachers in our state.”

    Why is that not a damnation of your GOP – the party in power who make and adopt the budgets?

  14. Jason

    Bear,

    The SDEA does not affect the education of children in SD.

    A teacher will teach the same whether they are a member of the SDEA or not.

    Being a member of the SDEA does not make a teacher smarter nor does it make them a better teacher.

  15. o

    Jason, keep flailing; keep trying to shift the focus from the REAL discussion:

    Sen. Sutton is a far stronger education candidate than Rep. Noem.

  16. Donald Pay

    SDEA represents teachers. When I served on the RC school board, I found the Rapid City affiliate of the SDEA to spend about 90 percent of their effort in non-contract years on improving education for students. There certainly is a lot of overlap between what’s good for teachers and what’s good for students. Doing good by teachers is usually doing good by students. Clearly, during contract years the union was mostly focused on negotiations.

    I lived next door to a strong union teacher, but she spent most of her time with me explaining what was working and what wasn’t working with her students. Sure, she mentioned salary and benefits from time to time, but the focus was on the best ways to get students to read up to grade level.

    Curriculum changes depended heavily on our classroom teachers. They were the one essential part of our committee process to study various curriculum options. We wanted to know from their perspective what the pluses and minuses were, what might work best, what might need supplementing.

  17. bearcreekbat

    Jason, can you provide any documentation or source for your new factual claim that SDEA does not affect education?

    And as for your two follow up claims about teachers, can you provide any studies, surveys, or other non-anecodotal support for such broad claims about the practices and skills of SD teachers being unaffected by membership the SDEA?

    Again, the online public statement from the SDEA contradicts each of your new claims:

    SDEA is an organization of dedicated and talented individuals working to transform the teaching profession to meet the challenges of the 21st century student. Our goal is to ensure that every child has a qualified and caring teacher in the classroom. To that end, we are leading conversations on the best practices for quality teaching.

    Whether it is helping teachers understand how to use Student Learning Objectives in their classrooms or developing the best assessments for students, SDEA will be there to provide resources and necessary professional development to help our members be successful in their classroom. We also offer summer workshops for continuing education units or graduate credit. Members also have access to the NEA Micro-credentials which is devoted to meeting the professional development needs of teachers.

    https://www.sdea.org/what-we-do/teaching-learning

    If you are contending no teacher benefits from these SDEA activities, what is the source of such a claim? If you have made these claims without any credible sources, you are again simply wasting everyone’s time by making such unsupported broad claims.

  18. Porter Lansing

    Jason’s ignorance (root word “ignore” meaning to overlook known truths) is responsible for educating many on FreePress. He says ignorant things and knowledgeable people refute and respond with truthful anecdotes, facts and life lessons. One can’t defend Jason’s willful “ignorance” but we may try to understand how good things can come from his deceitful deception.

  19. bearcreekbat

    Good point Porter. Perhaps responding with the truth to such false factual claims isn’t as much as a waste of time as I initially posited.

  20. owen reitzel

    First of all I’m surprised OS is married, especially to a teacher. Takes all kinds.
    My wife is a long time teacher and active in her local education association and in SDEA since she had her first job. She realizes the importance of paying dues and having somebody have her back.
    She has many teachers who she is friends with who don’t belong to SDEA. She doesn’t agree with them but lives with it.
    The teachers who don’t belong to their local group or SDEA still benefit from the local group as they negotiate contracts each year and even though they don’t pay dues they get protection from the SDEA-because the SDEA has to. Seem fair? Hardly. My wife belongs and pays dues because she knows it’s the right thing to do, I really have a hard time believing your wife said that.

    Jason, I think the last time SDEA supported a Republican was Mickelson. Question is why would they support a Republican governor? None have really supported teachers.

    And the SDEA is all about education. They support and offer help to teachers so that the teachers can concentrate on teaching our children.

  21. OldSarg

    Your wife is a bully:
    “She realizes the importance of paying dues
    She doesn’t agree with them but lives with it.
    Seem fair? Hardly”

    People should have the freedom of association without intimation. I am not against union but I am against the force unions use to intimidate other people in their attempt to force membership. I guess I just do not like bullies.

  22. Nobody who supports Trump gets to complain about bullying.

    Notice that none of this discussion from our two diehard conservative distractors explains how the five points in Billie’s favor are false, how the charge that Noem will continue the GOP back-burnering of education is false, or why any teacher or any other supporter of education should vote for anyone other than Democrat Billie Sutton (and a passel of Democratic Senators to back him up).

  23. Debbo

    Well, it’s pretty well settled based on evidence presented. SDEA is good for education. SDEA sees that Sutton is good for education. Noem is good for neither. The Russians got nuthin’.

    Moving on . . .

    😊😊😊

  24. Jason

    It’s very well settled that the SDEA doesn’t affect the level of education children receive in SD.

  25. o

    It is very well settled that Jason uses “very well settled” incorrectly.

  26. Timoteo

    I’m not impressed by the 2nd point (researching PK education). Maybe it’s just a matter of wording, but I would think the benefits and costs of PK education are fairly well understood by now.

    If Sutton were going to work toward establishing State funding for PK in South Dakota, then he just should have said that. Instead he’s going to “research” it. This means that nothing consequential will probably ever happen from it.

    (In Sutton’s defense, I realize that he didn’t create this peace of literature.)

  27. owen reitzel

    How is my wife a bully OS? She pays dues because she believe it’s the right thing to. She doesn’t bully anybody.
    You twist things around like the real bully here Trump.

  28. grudznick

    The SDEA is a socialist organization that opposed the fair and market driven bill 1.2.3.4. South Dakota hates unions, and unions as a whole are dying. Tying your wagon to that dying horse is not what Mr. Sutton wants to do, and he is actually upset that they gave him their endorsement. It pisses him off, although he hides it well. South Dakotans hate unions, and South Dakontans hate socialism.

    The SILT (Seven Indisputable Levels of Teachers) shows us how they should be paid, and this really irks the SDEA because it renders them moot.

  29. grudznick

    Mr. reitzel, I cannot speak for Mr. OldSarg, but I don’t think your wife is a bully. I just wanted to be clear, here, before the out-of-staters start blathering on this issue. I think your wife is a very nice lady, and her choice of where she spends her/your cash is totally up to her/you.

    I didn’t see where your young lady got brought into this conversation, but she should not have been, and if Mr. OldSarg did that then he was probably wrong. So sayeth grudznick.

  30. Thank you for that parenthesis, Timoteo. Sutton is awfully moderate and arguably timid (one observer tells me he’s got to swing harder in the next debate against the ruthless Noem who will not give her her beauty queen crown without a bitter fight), but the SDEA is even more so.

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