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Romkema, Turbiville, Nelson Agree: South Dakota Education Funding Not Adequate

Last updated on 2012.01.29

Saturday's District 31 crackerbarrel discussion here in Spearfish turned back to education funding. An audience member asked the legislators for their opinion on HB 1226, Rep. Larry Lucas's (D-26A/Mission) bill to require that state aid to education increase at the same rate as state revenues, with a maximum annual increase of six percent and minimum of zero. All three of Lawrence County's legislators rejected HB 1226, saying it lacks flexibility.

But the big news in this portion of the discussion came on the broader question of whether South Dakota adequately funds education. Rep. Fred Romkema, Rep. Chuck Turbiville, and Sen. Tom Nelson all said no, we do not adequately fund education.

Evidently these three Republican legislators disagree with the Sixth Circuit Court and South Dakota Supreme Court, both of which rejected a lawsuit by schools and parents arguing that our school funding is unconstitutionally inadequate. Yet this unconstitutional inadequacy does not stir out legislators to immediate action. Rep. Romkema, for instance, shifts responsibility for rectifying this unconstitutional behavior from the Legislature (the entity on which the state constitution lays the duty of providing a thorough and efficient school system) to the general public, saying it will take a "groundswell" from citizens to make education funding adequate.

Well, yes, but it will also take statesmen who are willing to file tough bills, cast tough votes, and make the tough case to the public that we need to spend much more on education. Such avid statesmanship on this issue was not on display in District 31 on Saturday.

Reminder: South Dakota's worst-in-the-nation average teacher salary of $35,201 is 37% below the national average. We are 20% behind second-worst North Dakota, which scrapes together $44,266, more than $9,000 more, for the average teacher. And don't whine about oil; less-petro-endowed Minnesota manages to pay its teachers $18,000 more. How's that for inadequate?

2 Comments

  1. Stan Gibilisco 2012.01.30

    Wyoming does best of all, according to the chart in your link above, "37% below the national average."

    I suspect it's the coal, oil, and gas that they exploit.

    Let us exploit the wind and sun, and we can follow their lead in teacher pay.

    Just a thought.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.01.30

    Wind, sun, and industrial hemp! Sustainable cash crop just waiting to make us rich! (Plus, the Internet tells me we can use hemp to make ethanol. Henry Ford did< ?a>!)

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