The South Dakota Budget and Policy Institute held a public meeting focused on education funding in Vermillion. Community members and school officials from several districts met for a presentation of data from Joyce Smolnisky, executive director of the BPI. She says the series of meetings are designed to develop dialogue about how to solve the education funding and teacher shortage problems…
Smolnisky says South Dakota spends twenty five percent less on each student when compared to adjacent states and the average teacher salary in South Dakota is only seventy five percent of what those other states will pay. She says they don’t have specific solutions…
Vermillion Mayor, Jack Powell, says he hopes the future sessions will engage more community members who will work to help solve the problem…
Other issues discussed at the meeting included the lack of qualified applicants for teaching jobs, teachers’ participation in civil disobedience, unequal property tax valuations, and several others facing education funding. Four more similar sessions will be held throughout the state through September.
