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HB 1234 Loses Conservative Columnist’s Support

Last updated on 2014.02.03

Back in March, Rapid City Journal columnist Janette McIntyre tried to defend HB 1234, Governor Daugaard's education reform package. Like most defenders of HB 1234, she failed, having to resort to inaccurate statements and ad professionem attacks on teachers and bogeyman scare tactics about lawyers and unions.

Janette McIntyre has since realized that defending HB 1234 is hopeless. After just a couple weeks of feedback from readers who disagreed with her, McIntyre declared fatwa on HB 1234:

Have you ever felt liberated when you said you were wrong and really meant it?

Well, I was wrong. The education establishment and everyone else should want the governor's education bill killed one way or another [Janette McIntyre, "Ask Why Superintendents Against Referendum," Rapid City Journal, 2012.04.11].

Somewhat hilariously, McIntyre claims that the real reason she came to Jesus on HB 1234 is that she heard superintendents opposing the referendum for fear that it might hinder their ability to pass the sales-tax initiative and get more funding for the schools. McIntyre may hate teachers, but she hates taxes worse, so the enemy of her enemy becomes her friend. Congratulations, Superintendent Graves! By flacking for the Governor's plan, you helped convince someone else to oppose it!

McIntyre straightens her views out more in her April 25 column, wherein she calls Governor Daugaard's plan the wrong approach:

Gov. Dennis Daugaard's latest attempt with serious arm twisting pitted good teachers against good teachers. I defended his stand originally to give teachers a raise thinking at least a few of them would be making more money. It was the wrong approach [Janette McIntyre, "Merging School Districts an Answer," Rapid City Journal, 2012.04.25].

McIntyre reverses her April 11 contention that South Dakota's K-12 schools are broken. She now admits that there isn't really a major problem requiring HB 1234's ministrations:

First, teachers are doing an excellent job teaching the children in South Dakota. The statistics prove it. It does not matter if it is the comparison on ACT tests or testing at lower grades. Our students come out above the national average.

That isn't happening because we have clean air and purified water running down Rapid Creek, it's the dedication of the teachers [McIntyre 2012.04.25].

McIntyre acknowledges that there are underperformers in every profession, but that principals and parents already have the ability to weed out the underperforming teachers. The real problem, says McIntyre, is paying all of South Dakota's dedicated teachers a competitive wage:

The problem is that under the current system — and by system I mean the unnecessary bureaucracy we have created — [teachers] are not even close to parity with their counterparts in adjoining states. That should embarrass all of us.

Those of us, and I admit I have had the same thoughts, too, who think that they only work nine months of the year, well, so do the teachers in other states. Frankly, most of us couldn't do their job, nor do we want it [McIntyre 2012.04.25].

That statement is a dramatic shift from McIntyre's April 5 statement that "Teachers are paid fairly, statewide and regionally."

McIntyre now contends that we should save money and raise pay for all teachers by consolidating school districts. I've heard calls for administrative consolidation from a number of petition signers. Consolidation has pros and cons; in some sparsely populated districts, it's unworkable.

HB 1234 has done all the work it should. It has inspired a lot of thought and conversation about what's really happening in our public schools. It has inspired people like McIntyre to get past teacher-bashing and easy rhetoric and look instead for real solutions. Now let's do what McIntyre says: kill HB 1234 and come back to the 2013 Legislative session with just and effective education policies.

9 Comments

  1. Steve Sibson 2012.05.09

    Cory, It is nicer to agree with you on something. It is not the teachers, it is the system, it is the standards, and it is the expensive bureaucracy to implement the standards that need to go.

  2. Stace Nelson 2012.05.09

    My daughter Erika is a junior at Hanson High School. Without studying for the ACTs as her dad would have liked, she breezed through it with a 24.

    My thanks to the many public school teachers that have prepared her so well for college, and to the Good Lord for blessing her as a beautiful, intelligent, and INDEPENDENT young woman.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.09

    No one should study for the ACT... or for any other standardized test. Kudos to your daughter, Stace!

  4. D.E. Bishop 2012.05.10

    I think some administration consolidating could work. Faith and Timber Lake, for example. Do those schools share certain teachers? I'm thinking of music, reading specialists, language teachers, etc. Lots of schools already do that kind of thing. Why not do it with superintendents at least?

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.10

    I think Bridgewater and Emery shared superintendent Jason Bailey for a few years. They also shared all extracurriculars and six teachers. Note that the superintendent took a $12K raise, and the two schools incur increased mileage costs. The two schools consolidated in the 2010-2011 school year. The two schools were ten minutes apart. Faith and Timber Lake are 70+ miles apart.

  6. grudznick 2012.05.10

    If this Ms. Shop and Governor appoint you to one of their committees, Mr. H, I do look forward to see how you work with them for some positive results. 1.2.3.4 brings positive results. The public is tired of whining administrators with their fancy parking spots, and wants teachers who work hard and don't slack ass.

  7. grudznick 2012.05.10

    Young Mr. Nelson's comment seems a bit insane.

  8. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.10

    HB 1234 brings no positive results. If appointed, I will make clear that basic assumption during our icebreaking session. I will also make clear that our mission, if HB 1234 remains in force, is to do good in spite of the law.

    Three working groups remain to be established: the aspiring teacher scholarship committee, the Local Teacher Reward Plan oversight board, and the "Education Reform Advisory Council." I could serve on any of these committees without any conflict of interest in my opposition to the law itself.

    --I could serve on the LTRPOB, since I could effectively evaluate local plans to opt out of the the destructive merit pay proposals.

    --I could easily serve on the scholarship committee: that's the only part of HB 1234 that doesn't harm education. I'm also a really good reader and ranker of applications like this (see my experience judging debate and grading essays, plus my first hand knowledge of what new teachers need to fly in their beginning years).

    --I would rock on the SDERAC. This board isn't committed to upholding HB 1234; it is charged with examining further issues in education. SDERAC can thus dedicate itself to studying the real issues in SD K-12 education and the data and evidence that HB 1234 and the agenda-fueled debate around it ignored. SDERAC comes from Russ Olson's amendment; he should use his pull to get me on!

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.10

    And define for me the evidence of insanity in Rep. Nelson's honest pride in his daughter and his gratitude to the professionals who've helped her grow.

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