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Superintendents Mistakenly Urge Teachers to Put Down HB 1234 Petitions

Last updated on 2012.12.11

Is my boss telling me to sit down and be quiet? And am I telling my boss he's wrong? That's how you might oversimplify the South Dakota School Superintendents Association's request to the South Dakota Education Association to drop its drive to refer HB 1234 to a public vote:

The executive board of the South Dakota School Superintendents Association wrote a letter last month to the South Dakota Education Association urging them to "consider not moving forward with your petition drive" on House Bill 1234 [Josh Verges, "Teachers Get No Help on Reform Law Referral," that Sioux Falls paper, 2012.04.05].

Are the superintendents saying they think Governor Daugaard's education reform package is a good idea? No, mostly not. They're worried that the referendum campaign against HB 1234 will get in the way of the campaign to pass Initiated Measure 15, the education and health care communities' effort to pass an extra-penny sales tax, and to defeat last year's HB 1230:

Brookings Superintendent Roger DeGroot, the SDSSA president, said most superintendents think HB1234 is bad policy, but they'd like the union to focus its efforts on the sales tax initiative.

"I don't think anyone worked harder than me" to defeat HB1234, he said, "but we need that $90 million in education" [Verges, 2012.04.05].

The SDSSA's board worries that we can't handle explaining to voters why they should vote No on HB 1234 (not to mention No on Referred Law 14) but vote Yes on Initiated Measure 15.

Um, excuse me, boss? At Montrose, you hired me to teach literature, speech, composition, and algebra all in one day. At Spearfish, I now have the relative ease of just two preps, French I and French II. Some teachers have six different preps and coach after school. I think we can handle doing two things at once.

SDEA exec Bryce Healy notes that some superintendents are still working to defeat HB 1234 by circulating referendum petitions. Healy says those superintendents and other circulators are not having to work very hard to educate voters to get their signatures. Says Healy, "This is the easiest petition I've ever circulated."

The SDSSA board is missing the strong possibility that putting HB 1234 on the ballot will motivate education supporters to come to the polls and defeat Referred Law 14 and pass Initiated Measure 15. Education organizations face a hard sell on getting voters to approve IM 15's new tax, but at the very least, urging voters to reject a separate money-wasting policy won't hurt that effort. It may even enhance our fiscal credibility. Instead of just arguing that the schools need more money (and our conservative opponents are ready to hammer us on that point), we can use HB 1234 (as a counterexample!) to engage voters in a deeper conversation about the policies on which we ought to spend that money.

Now the superintendents aren't saying they'll campaign against teachers and try to block the referral. But it seems counterproductive that they would publicly criticize a petition drive against a law they generally agree is bad for the schools they run (a bothersome exception: a survey of SDSSA members found 60 out of 105 superintendents expressing support for the very bad idea of yanking the due process rights of continuing contract). SDEA announced its intention to refer HB 1234 on March 7. They hit the streets with petitions on March 19. SDSSA sent its letter to SDEA on March 21. Did SDSSA's board really think that SDEA would commit political suicide by firing up lots of volunteers and signers, then throwing their petitions in the trash?

Superintendents, don't worry. Teachers and voters can handle a ballot with multiple items on it. Referring HB 1234 to a public vote, engaging the public in a deep conversation about education policy, and stopping Governor Daugaard's bad ideas will serve our schools and our state well.

13 Comments

  1. grudznick 2012.04.07

    Those fat-cat administrators didn't get their cushy reserved parking spots by being dumber than the teachers they boss, you know. They know that I'll be sure to come out to the polls to vote down that tax you want to put on me to give money to only you, and when I'm there I'll vote to support that fine 1234 too, even though it doesn't impact me at all, just to poke you in the eye for trying to take more of my money. Oh yes indeed, and I'll be bringing my roaddogs with me. :-)

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.07

    Horsepuckey, Grudz. You've intimated before that there's some awesome sneak attack the GOP is just waiting to spring once we walk into their HB 1234 trap. But what's the real game plan? What you say above doesn't indicate any advantage given to your side on the tax initiative by the HB 1234 referral. "No taxes—roaaar!" You already have all the motivation you need to go to the polls and bring your friends to vote down IM 15; HB 1234 isn't even gravy to that one. Whom from your side does HB 1234, a bigger pile of state regulations on local boards, motivate to go to the polls who isn't already going?

  3. Roger Elgersma 2012.04.07

    The administrators secretly want 1234 so they can pay the best better so they do not lose them to Minnesota and so they can fire some easier. But they did not want the teachers to know so they could pay some different without being blamed for it.

  4. LK 2012.04.07

    Roger,

    If administrators truly think that HB 1234 has enough funding to keep teachers in state, they're gravely mistaken. I have a friend applying in NE. Basd on the salary schedule he showed me, he will be getting around $20,000 more if he moves. HB 1234 would not let him come close to that Nebraska salary

    Typed with thumbs, please excuse errors

  5. Patrick Leary 2012.04.08

    I don't think it's that superintendents don't feel teachers are capable of multi-tasking, but that voters, confronted with a multi-question [some would say confusing] ballot, will reason "when in doubt, vote 'no' on all questions." Since Corey is now West River, I'd refer him to a column in the Rapid City Journal by Janette McIntyre, "Don't let SDEA run our schools." A lot of taxayers have little sympathy for teachers, and whether the SDEA convinces a majority of voters of the validity of their claims, we won't know until the morning of Nov. 7.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.08

    Patrick, I've already suffered through McIntyre's rant and thoroughly refuted it. But we'll keep hearing folks like her and Jim Shaw stoke that fire of illogic and spite. But SDEA has already taken the risk of igniting that ire with the sales tax initiative. HB 1234 does not heighten SDEA's disadvantage; it actually creates a situation where SDEA finds common ground with a lot of conservatives who may not like unions but who agree with SDEA that HB 1234 is not good public policy.

  7. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.08

    LK: $20,000?!?! Are we going to have to send Teach for America to fill teaching slots in Yankton?

  8. Michael Black 2012.04.08

    Cory, how many recent graduates are looking for their first teaching position?

  9. LK 2012.04.08

    I saw the scale. It topped out at well over $70,000

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.08

    $70K?! Oh my... Erin's parents live in Nebraska... we could bring young K much closer to the grandparents....

    Michael: no idea!

  11. Becca 2012.04.10

    Cory, I would happily welcome you teaching here in Nebraska! I've said before I've known several teachers who got their education in SD because it was less expensive and then promptly moved to Nebraska after graduation so they could earn a decent wage. I would love my step-daughter to have a teacher like you, she's sick of taking Spanish anyways, French would be fun...hmm, maybe Elkhorn could use a debate coach as well.... :)

  12. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.10

    Elkhorn... any openings coming up? What's your base salary?

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.04.10

    Oh, and Becca, you and I know well that every school can use a real debate coach!

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