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Noem: State Can’t Assume All Financial Responsibility for Kids, So No State Funding for Child Care!

Last updated on 2024-01-15

Speaking of not responding to the question that’s being asked, Governor Kristi Noem evidently thinks people looking for the state to bring down the cost of child care are asking for her to write checks for all of their kiddos’ groceries and diapers:

The Republican governor told Go Watertown on Dec. 13 she is not willing to let the state directly subsidize child care for families.

“I just don’t think it’s the government’s job to pay or to raise people’s children for them,” Noem said during a half-hour interview.

Noem said some Democratic state lawmakers have called for more state government aid for child care when both parents are working.

“I still believe parents are parents,” Noem told the Watertown radio station. “Their responsibility is their children and we’ll do all we can to make sure there’s resources in their communities to utilize, but I don’t believe it’s the role of the government to assume all financial responsibility for raising these children.”

…South Dakota is one of a handful of states that does not have any state funding toward early childhood education or child care funding [Eric Mayer, “Gov. Noem On Child Care: Not Government’s Role,” KELO-TV, 2023.12.18].

Well, at least she’s made clear that her pro-life politics start at conception and end at birth.

But what gives? Governor Noem has clearly thought it’s the role of government to provide her kids jobs and give them preferential treatment to advance their careers.

Amidst all the deep Republican concern for fetuses and Noem kids, can the state not spare a care for the working parents who find their low South Dakota wages eaten up by the skyrocketing cost of diminishing child care facilities? No policymaker or parent is saying, “Hey, state government! Assume all financial responsibility for our kids!” Noem’s appeal to principled abstraction is a rank distraction from her failure (this is year five of her postureful governing) to come up with real policy solutions to make working and parenting affordable in South Dakota.

14 Comments

  1. Same deal, if Mrs. Noem wants to feed from the Qochtopus gravy train she has to prove she’s numbed to the misery, hopelessness and despair her political party has inflicted on South Dakotans.

  2. O

    All would be a moot issue of wages were fair.

  3. cathy [not b]

    The more expensive childcare becomes, the more women–and men–are forced to leave the workforce. Expensive childcare=worker shortages. Covid proved that. If families decide to leave South Dakota for better wages and childcare opportunities…worker shortage and loss of future workers. That idiot Noem and her minions should be doing evrything possible to keep people here and attract young families with school-aged children. Stop the brain drain. Right now, most of the people she’s attracting are retirees and empty nesters. That may grow her base, but it doesn’t grow the state.

  4. Secretary Becerra also sent letters to the governors of nine states with the highest child disenrollment rates by number and percentage, urging them to adopt additional federal strategies and flexibilities to help prevent children and their families from losing coverage due to red tape. Those states include Arkansas – PDF*, Florida – PDF*, Georgia – PDF*, Idaho – PDF*, Montana – PDF*, New Hampshire – PDF*, Ohio – PDF*, South Dakota – PDF*, and Texas – PDF*. These nine states account for about 60% of the decline in children’s Medicaid and CHIP enrollment from March through September 2023, as indicated in the data release – PDFtoday. This is especially important for children and families of color who are likely disproportionately impacted.

    https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/12/18/biden-harris-administration-releases-new-medicaid-chip-renewal-data-showing-role-statepolicychoices-play-keeping-kids-covered.html

  5. All Mammal

    The gov’s GOED awarded millions to funky entities never heard of before. We looked some up to find they seemed to have been created just to receive this fat wad from the taxpayer. Like everything else about Gov Noem, it’s all a lumpy hot mess under the surface

    From https://kbhbradio.com/child-care-grants-go-to-economic-development-agencies/

    The entire $1.3 million was awarded to community economic development corporations – not directly to licensed child care providers and facilities – and only one in the Black Hills area….in Custer

    Aberdeen – Aberdeen Development Corporation
    Brookings – Boys and Girls Club of Brookings
    Burke – Burke Business Promotion Corporation
    Clear Lake – Clear Lake Area Development
    Custer – Custer Area Economic Development Corporation
    DeSmet – DeSmet Development Corporation
    Flandreau – Boys and Girls Club of Moody County
    Freeman – Freeman Community Development Corporation
    Gayville – Gayville Volin School District
    Highmore – City of Highmore
    Madison – Lake Area Improvement Corporation
    Milbank – Grant County Development Corporation
    Miller – On Hand Development Corporation
    Mission – Rosebud Economic Development Corporation
    Mobridge – Mobridge Economic Development Corporation
    Murdo – Murdo Economic Development Corporation
    Pierre – Pierre Economic Development Corporation
    Platte – Platte Development Corporation
    Rapid City – Elevate Rapid City
    Rapid City – Kindred Spirits LLC
    Redfield – Grow Spink, Inc.
    Salem – Salem Economic Development Corporation
    Sioux Falls – Sioux Falls Development Foundation
    Spearfish – Spearfish Economic Development Corporation
    Tabor – Sacred Heart School
    Vermillion – Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Company
    Watertown – Watertown Development Corporation
    Yankton – Yankton Thrive

  6. leslie

    I’ve read and stressed this for the last several elections, that the greatest election issues are 1.) economic inequality; and,

    2.) of course, global warming.

    A plethora of data surrounding economic inequality is linked below. I’ve also been saying since the build up to the Mueller Report (and even the Steele Dossiea) that idiot Trump is toast, and it appears that despite McConnel’s best efforts (packing SCOTUS, making a mockery of Senate impeachment, sacrificing democracy of the United States for raw power in the face of demographics), he is in fact that. The delicious irony is Trump has taken down the corrupt Republican party.

    https://www.americaninequality.io/maps

  7. grudznick

    Those bossturds hate us out here in the Black Hills, Ms. Mammal. They hate us, and I for one don’t blame my good friend Bob for his public past transgressions. There is something deeper at work here.

  8. Richard Schriever

    grudz, you occupants of the hills are just that, an occupying slug of infidel squatters in a particularly holy place. Some call it a temple. Karma is against you.

  9. Richard Schriever

    Leslie, thanks for the link. I have discovered that there are exactly 0 (zero) counties in NE, ND or MT and 1 (one) county in Iowa, 1 (one) in WY and 3 in MN that have higher annual per capita income to the one I live in in SD. All of them are several hours of travel time from here as well. This flies in the face of all the locals who whine incessantly about how poor they are and how much “guvmint” does them wrong.

  10. flopster

    Too bad SDak has to fund ‘her’ & her traipsing all over the USA – oh its to promote SDak, I forgot. We surely can’t help care for the states kiddos. Biggest fake ever from her face, hair extensions, proclaimed knowledge, and ‘values’. She values ‘herself’ alright, not the state of SDak and its citizens. ~

  11. Bob Newland

    “I shall have to accept the fact, I’m afraid, that her mind is a very thin soil, laid an inch or two deep upon very barren rock. She is content with superficial smartness; and the whole conception is poor, cheap, not the vision, however imperfect, of an interesting mind.” –Virginia Woolf, reapplied to a worthy recipient.

  12. Crystal Schlimgen

    What happened to electing moral, caring, non partisan statesman (women). Cities and citizens who don’t need help receive it because she is fulfilling her campaign promises. She doesn’t care if children go hungry, stay home alone because wages in S.D. are intentionally kept low because of her idea of economic development and growth and attracting new jobs are inticed by low wages. Look up her assets and you’ll understand what privilege drives her. She is a great believer in people helping themselves without a hand up because she’s never had to. She is not the Republican l want representing me.

    .

  13. SAM2

    Gov. Noem is right on this one, this is a indirect subsides for large corporations that pay low wages that liberals hate.

  14. David "Tally" Plume

    Empirical research has indicated the a comprehensive(above and beyond the headstart model) Early Childhood Education (ECE) program results in a ROI of 16% as opposed to the net loss of traditional adult institutions.
    North Carolina’s Abercedarian Project ( ihttps://fpg.unc.edu/projects/abecedarian-projects) a longitudinal study (going on more than 40 years) of low income students that produced results for developing contributing members of society.
    One of the PI’s, Dr. Craig C Ramey, a world renowned and foremost expert on ECE testified in Pierre.
    His testimony came back when Kristi Noem was just fitted for a training bra.
    That’s how long ago the legislature knew about the science of ECE.

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