The first meeting of the South Dakota Blue Ribbon Task Force on Teachers and Students was held yesterday in Pierre. The meeting was designated to discuss the current funding situation within the state and to cover the data collected at public listening sessions held throughout South Dakota. Governor Dennis Daugaard says the task force will be taking anything into consideration.
Taskforce co-chair, Senator Deb Soholt from Sioux Falls says the efforts will be extremely focused on funding education and not the standards of education.
Representative Jacqueline Sly of Rapid City is the other co-chair and spoke to the taskforce about what was said at public listening sessions held across the state.
Soholt said the taskforce will make a few assumptions in their process to improve the funding for public schools. The first will be that South Dakota teachers are ready to teach as soon as they graduate. The second assumption made will be that student performance is in good shape.
The group heard extensive information and data from the Department of Education, the Bureau of Finance and Management, and the Department of Revenue. The next meeting is scheduled for August 19th in Pierre.
