Rookie Representative Nicole Uhre-Balk (D-32/Rapid City) demonstrates efficient lawmaking by changing one word to make a ceiling-to-floor change in K-12 education funding.
Rep. Uhre-Balk’s House Bill 1205 amends the formula for the index factor that tells the Legislature how much it is supposed to increase funding for K-12 general and special education each year. Right now, that increase is supposed to be “the annual percentage change in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers as computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor for the year before the year immediately preceding the year of adjustment or three percent, whichever is less”. HB 1205 changes less to greater.
With one word, HB 1205 changes 3% from a ceiling to a floor.
Requiring at least a 3% increase instead of capping increases at 3% also removes the frightful possibility that a year of deflation could dictate a decrease in K-12 funding.
We probably shouldn’t care much about this clever change, since, as Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen has patiently explained, the index factor is a guideline, a goal, a gentle suggestion that the Governor and the Legislature may ignore at will. Since it’s not binding, the great Canon of Statutory Construction “Presumption Against Surplussage” (“Why is there at all? Why did they put it there? What was it meant to do?”) dictates that we should just strike the index factor from statute, which Senator Jim Mehlhaff (R-24/Pierre) proposes to do with Senate Bill 200.
But Representative Uhre-Balk still deserves a gold star for inviting a substantive debate on our fiscal capacity and commitment to education by changing just one word.
Once their born Republicans don’t give a damn about kids.
Our children deserve the best education possible. They need a healthy breakfast, lunch, and snack. They need the most conducive environment to learn, safety, structure & consistency, and a highly proficient staff.
Some students may lack one or more of these at home so it’s imperative that public schools do as much as it takes for their clientele to succeed. They are our future.
MONEY HELPS TOO
The problem goes back to the 1990s, when the current funding system was concocted. The baseline assumptions of what constituted an adequate education, and thus the spending on education, was a mid-1990s education. That was before computers in the classroom. It was before an expansion of STEM courses. It was before changes in vocational education from the shop class approach to a technology class approach. It was based on South Dakota teacher pay being 51st in the nation. When your baseline is founded on an education assumption made 30 years ago with yearly increases based on what was happening 30 years ago you can’t expect that funding formula to be adequate in modern times. It’s great that yearly increases are built into the system, but it’s a system based on a 30 year old base. It simply doesn’t work because “Things Have Changed,” as Bob Dylan sang.
Rep Uhre-Balk is the best thing going on in the House.
It is a Janklow classic, Mr. Pay.
Donald, I disagree. I don’t believe that even the Janklow formula looked at school need. Funding has always been driven by the pot of money the state is willing to shell out.
I don’t think the question: What would it take to fund education in SD properly? has ever been answered.
Janklow did one good thing; hard wire all the public schools for internet by using prisoners from Sioux Falls. Oh, and required in-service for teachers to learn Microsoft apps to teach students.
Daugaard introduced a formula for teacher pay, thus the extra 1/2 cent state tax.
They need to increase what they send the state per student.