Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-18/Yankton) made the point on Facebook that Pierre is swimming in our tax dollars and needs to reprioritize how it spends those dollars.
Exhibit A to support Rep. Hunhoff's contention: the latest Census Bureau report on state government finances, which shows that South Dakota continues to short education:
- In 2011, the inaugural year of Daugaardian austerity, South Dakota state government increased general expenditures by 1.9% while decreasing education spending by 0.2%.
- South Dakota directed 32% of its general expenditures to education at all levels. That ranks us 38th in the nation.
- South Dakota joined North Dakota and Alaska in spending a higher percentage of its budget on highways than any other state.
- Texas, Utah, and Michigan have big rural areas, yet they all managed to rank in the top ten for spending on education as a percentage of state expenditures.
South Dakota needs to put its money where its mouth is on education. But here's one small exception: Governor Daugaard's budget calls for spending $151,000 on teacher evaluation software. I don't know who's calling for this software, but last month, my administration evaluated me without any $151,000 software. My assistant principal whipped up a pretty thorough rubric, along with pre- and post-observation docs, with plain old Microsoft Word. He didn't need any other vendor's product to tell me what he thought of my classroom. Nix that budget line, Dennis, and help someone hire four more foreign language teachers!
I'm getting the impression that the Governor is not educable.
Well, there you have it---the payoff of $151,000 to some entity. Anyone know who it is? My guess is it's the company that Rapid City teacher got the award from. I'm sure there will be a kickback coming back to the Republicans. Not only is Daugaard not educable; he and the Republican Party are crooked.
I bet the Methodist Church will get the $151 and a few surplus chairs too.
Here's how I imagine Cory teaching finance and public policy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JL9YET2gg0k
Hat tip to Jesse and students at UofM@KC, http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-financial-crisis-with-subtitles.html
John, I'm sure some of my students would endorse that portrayal.
Here are 2 outstanding TED talks on the imperative to revolutionize our education system. Robinson presented them about 4 years apart. They average about 17 minutes. Pass the ADHA pills, please.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html
It's hard to find or create the faith that our legislature, executive, regents, or school boards will rise to the challenge.
John, Sir Ken Robinson's prescription for reforming education runs counter to anything our Legislatures or governors have proposed in the last 30 years. For Robinson, real reform is about getting rid of standardization. I love Robinson's ideas; Daugaard, Schopp, and everyone else pulling the levers reject them.
DD wants to pay off investors:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/aan-daugaard-asks-legislature-to-cover-5m-promise-to-businesses-20121210,0,3079294.story