The Chronicle of Higher Education reads up on America's state legislatures to find out how many legislators have college degrees. How does South Dakota rank?
- 60.9% of South Dakota's legislators have at least a bachelor's degree. 74.7% of legislators across the country have finished college. 39.4% of all South Dakotans have college degrees; 37.9% of all Americans do. So depending on your perspective, you can say that South Dakota's legislators are slightly more like their constituents educationally than the national average... or South Dakota's legislators are relatively less educated than their counterparts nationwide.
- South Dakota's legislators have the sixth-lowest college completion rate of all legislatures in the U.S.
- Among our neighbors, the smartest legislatures are found in Nebraska (87.3% with college degrees) and Minnesota (83.6%).
- 26.6% of South Dakota legislators have graduate degrees, the third-lowest percentage among U.S. legislatures. National legislature rate: 40.8%.
- [Updated and corrected 11:21 CDT]: The Chronicle says South Dakota has no Ph.D. legislators.... but they forget one of their own! Former Board of Regents exec, now District 24 Representative Tad Perry has a doctorate from the University of Missouri. That means 1% of our Legislature has a doctorate. National legislature doctorate rate: 4.2%
- 16.2% of South Dakota's legislators never went to college, the fourth-highest rate in the nation. National legislature rate: 8.7%.
- Looking at those who have degrees, 77.4% of South Dakota's lawmakers and 79.6% nationwide have government to thank for their educations: they went to public universities.
- 58.3% of South Dakota's egghead legislators went to college in-state. National legislature rate: 55.3%.
- South Dakota is fifth-lowest for lawyers in the legislature: 7.6%. National legislature rate: 17.2%. The state with the highest percentage of lawyers making the rules: Texas at 30.4%.
These numbers can lead to a discussion of the republic-democracy, Madison-Adams tension. With college completion rates much higher than the popular norm, are our legislators too smart for our own good?
Folks managing something as complex as a state likely benefit from having a breadth of experience. I'd like to think that includes the training in critical thinking and the humanities that good universities provide. But does college always broaden our minds? There's a good question to ponder.
Having a college degree does not make someone smart. There are a lot of smart people who don't have a college degree. Maybe the jobs and market place aren't tailored to having as great of success without a college degree.
Some people grade success depending on how much money someone makes and others grade us on our level of education.
Some kids put a lot of effort into their education in class so that they get the most out of it while others coast and do the absolute minimun so they simply get a diploma.
Some of the smartest most well thought people I know do not have a college education but a richness in life and ad desire to learn and become self educated.
When it comes to someone like Kristi Noem or other legislators I really am indifferent to her going to college or not. She didn't require an education from an institution because she was essentially self employed and successful with her farm opperation.
Every single individual has knowledge that we all lack. Maybe they aren't as smart as everyone on the planet but the way we've become accustomed to judging intelligence is inaccurrate.
(I just don't want to blanket the masses as intelligent or ignorant because of a college degree)
I do think college is great. especially if someone has a strong interest in an area and wishes to broaden his or her mind on a particular subject or career path.
Thanks for pointing out this study. I just linked it on my facebook and thought to share my comment here as well... SD is sixth from the bottom in terms of legislators having college degrees. I contend though that we are in the top 3 in terms of legislators who have COMMON SENSE. They gave us a book called RichStates/PoorStates and we are #3 because we balance our budget. CA may have 89% with degrees, but they are bankrupt.
The Chronicle did not list Dakota State University, which has one current legislator-alum that I can think of off the top of my head (and maybe more if I do some research ) Shantal Krebs.
A college degree does not necessarily make a person intelligent. If you have no common sense,which a lot of people definitely are short of, all the degrees you have are of no valu to you. You can be a lawyer,for example, and as some are book smart but totally ignorant. any body can go to a book and get an answere,which most do. A lot of teachers can teach a subject but can't teach a child. Now all you intelligent??????? people can jump on this!!!!
Rep. Steve Hickey-
Common sense is not universal. Everyone has a different version due to our own unique life experiences. For example, if the legislature would be passing bills legalizing gay marriage you would be decrying them because of their lack of common sense. Your common sense tells you that it is wrong. Other people's common sense says that it is correct and they were entirely shaped that way because of their personal experience.
Secondly, common sense minimizes evidence based reasoning. Common sense is an attempt to reach a decision based on previous experience. However, previous experience in an area may be limited which results in poor decisions.
Lastly, do not forget that SD is a welfare state. We take in more money from the federal government then we contribute. Until this is no longer the case we cannot claim that we have balanced our budget. We only balance it in so much as states like California and New York send us money so that we aren't deeply in the red. Let me reiterate, your example of a bankrupt states (CA) sends us money so that we can balance our budget.
SD "common sense" rejects state planning so more South Dakotans with "common sense" build expensive houses in holes next to rivers. Dams with floodgates capable of releasing 150,000 cuft/second did not pop mysteriously onto the river.
Bill Janklow takes advantage of SD "common sense", he rants about the Corp of Engineer's arrogance and his law suit against them regarding the Missouri River use plan.
Can anybody with "common sense" remember whether Janklow wanted the dams to hold higher or lower water levels or static levels for the benefits of recreation and fishing?
Anyway, I know that there are many natively smart South Dakotans without college degrees, but I also suspect that most of them would have also benefited from a college education. My own father had an 8th grade school education, but never stopped learning. Even so he regretted all his life that he had not had the opportunity to go to college. He was a good man anyway.
So, I have some respect for those without college education, but I also know that such education can make it easier to see reality instead of mythology.
On the farm we called it common sense, in the city they call it street smarts(they probably have another word for it in the jungle). They do not always come to the same conclusions. What makes sense to one does not to another since we have different experiences. So common sense to one is nonsense to another.
What makes us think. My Dad always told us why we were doing a job on the farm since he wanted us to think and understand what we were doing so when we grew up and were on our own we would know why we did what we did. He was not allowed to go to high school since when he graduated from a one room country school house in South Dakota his two brothers were in WWII and his Dad had just broke his arm so someone had to do the farm work. So he always wished he could have gone further. I have three college degrees, my bother had a PhD and has done research for thirty years and my sister is working on her PhD. Dad's dreams got passed on. Are we smarter than Dad? He thinks, he uses a dictionary at age 81 even though he was called a walking dictionary in grade school. He kept learning, which universities like to take credit for. An attitude of wanting to keep learning is important no matter when you left school, and looking at the whole picture is also important.