Last updated on 2012.01.19
...at least he did in 2010:
Leadership is not about mandates and it is not about a top-down approach. A good leader is first a good listener. Together, we will agree upon our common goals and develop new approaches to achieve them. I have the utmost respect for the educators, administrators, parents and taxpayers at the local level, and I believe that they are usually in the best position to make decisions for their district. The state will not dictate actions to school districts. As Governor, I will work with local leaders to set the goals for which we all will strive &ndash and then make the state a resource and a facilitator for districts to achieve those objectives.
—Dennis Daugaard, "The Daugaard Plan for Education," campaign document, 2010.09.13
The state will not dictate actions to school districts. Ri-i-i-ight.
Big brother approach to education which is evident in GDD's merit plan is not what most South Dakota people want. Problem - there is a huge majority in both houses of one party. Will they stand up to the governor on this issue and seek new ideas or will they fold into line and vote GDD?
How much time and money will be wasted with the governor's program?
Remember a few years ago when someone brainpower decided to cut state funding to the alternative schools so we can save money. Local students did well at AIM HIGH in Madison. They had a chance to pick themselves up and finish school. Now I know that the schools are trying to do the best that they can, but online classes with little support are not cutting it. What you end up with is kids open enrolling.
Allowing are kids to fail is OK, but they also need a way to dig themselves out of the hole they have dug for themselves: no hand outs but a helping hand.
The only thing that will stop them from folding, Charlie, is if we all holler. There's no guarantee that our pressure will work, but an absence of pressure definitely won't. When's that crackerbarrel?