Senator Corey Brown (R-23/Gettysburg) had a really good idea: he put together a free online survey to measure the impacts of the budget cuts he and his fellow legislators imposed on South Dakota's public school districts. He got pretty good response: out of 152 school districts he e-mailed, 106 responded. That 70% response rate beats the pants off the organizational response rate average of 36%.
Brown's results offer some empirical confirmation that Governor Daugaard's budget cuts have significantly reduced the number of jobs in South Dakota:
average per district
|
total for 106 districts
|
|
| Reduction in Force | ||
| teachers | 2.5 | 265 |
| administrators | 1.4 | 148.4 |
| classified staff | 2.8 | 296.8 |
| Attrition | ||
| teachers | 2.6 | 275.6 |
| administrators | 1.4 | 148.4 |
| classified staff | 3.2 | 339.2 |
| Jobs Lost | 1473.4 |
These 106 schools reported laying off the equivalent of 710 full-time positions. Another 763 full-time equivalents disappeared as veteran teachers like Doc Miller left and schools chose not to fill those slots.
That's the equivalent of 1473 full-time jobs not drawing paychecks that circulate in local economies across the state. That's 1473 opportunities to work in South Dakota that are no longer available to our new college graduates.
And that's just in the 70% of schools that responded. We can't extrapolate by a straight percentage, as the non-respondents included mostly smaller school districts (Harrisburg and Aberdeen were the largest non-responders... and what's up with that, Tigers and Golden Eagles? Check your e-mail!). But a conservative extrapolation would place total job losses across the K-12 system above 1600.
Senator Brown's first conclusion from his survey is that "Following budget cuts to K"12 Education during the 2011 Legislative Session, initial analysis indicates, as a whole, districts appear to have avoided disaster." Avoiding disaster seems a pretty low bar for success. Senator Brown acknowledges that avoiding disaster came at a price—80% of schools raiding reserves, 73% raiding capital outlay to prop up their general funds, 87% giving no raises to teachers. Oddly, Senator Brown does not mention in his summary of that price the loss of nearly 1500 jobs.
Maybe 1500 jobs doesn't sound like much to Senator Brown. In the statewide labor pool, 1500 jobs would change our statewide unemployment rate from 4.6% to about 4.3%. But from one professional sector, 1500 is an awful lot of jobs. That's the equivalent of five Premier usury calling centers closing. And those school jobs aren't soul-killing jobs built on bilking people out of their money. Every one of those school jobs is one less opportunity for a professional and his or her family to make a living in South Dakota... and one less opportunity for our kids to learn. That's the biggest price our communities have had to pay for Senator Brown's and Governor Daugaard's budget.
Yankton was above average. It cut "11.5 teachers, an administrator, 11 para-professionals and three bus routes"
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2011/09/13/community/doc4e6ec6af6e649636884762.txt
So I read this post, then this story.
AP- Firearm and ammunition companies from across the country are gathering in Rapid City for the South Dakota Firearm Research and Technology forum. About 100 people are expected to attend today's event. Governor Dennis Daugaard says the forum aims to identify resources that'll help the state's firearm industry expand.
I wonder what "resources" the governor will find to help sell more guns, now that he got rid of a bunch of those pesky teachers.
The effect that GDD and his budget policies had on k-12 education was like a shot in the head. Perhaps he needs more "firearms" in the state to carry on the task.
He certainly did take aim at education. He set his sights on teachers, and I'd say he hit the bulls-eye. (I could do this all day)
Matt,
One could say the Governor’s attack on teachers was like shooting fish in a barrel
Hey, leave my guns and fish out of this :p
The SD legislature makes Congress look incompetent when it comes to balancing a budget. As much as you may dislike the decisions made, they at least passed a balanced budget and they did it on time. Yes, there was pain, but the legislature did their job. As a whole, members of Congress are too busy worrying about being re-elected and that the other party might be able to claim success if the economy turns around.
You're right Michael; the Governor did a great job of picking off educators because he viewed them as political enemies.
Is this a good time to mention that in Madison we're probably building another gym instead of replacing recently cut positions?
Probably not.
Chris, that would entirely depend on the outcome of an election.
State employees have not had a raise for three years either. It's going to be a tough session in Pierre come January.
LK: heck of an observation! This year's budget just removed 1500 jobs for likely political enemies of the powers that be.
Chris: indeed, we locals have an obligation to spend what little money we have left as wisely as possible. But hey, a new gym will spur economic development and provide all those out-of-work teachers good jobs waiting tables for sports fans....
Michael: balancing a budget is nice... but so is providing necessary services. Balancing the budget deserves little praise if it is done the wrong way.