The South Dakota Blue Ribbon Task Force on education now has it’s report out, and it’s pretty much what thinking people expected all along: a call for more of your money to be spent on the education bureaucracy
The Rapid City Journal has an article today with an interview of RINO State Rep. Jacqueline Sly on the task force’s, um, findings. The plan is for–you guessed it–“reforming” South Dakota’s education system.
Most Americans should be (but aren’t, I know) savvy enough by now to realize that when a politician says they want to “reform” something (especially a liberal politician like Sly), that means they want to liberalize that something, they want to make government bigger and more powerful in that area. that they want to tax you more in that area. Actually reforming something in government is now so rare that it is safe to assume that “reform” means to liberalize and expand.ADVERTISEMENT
The report calls for an additional $75 million in spending for teacher’s salaries, though the education establishment has been coy about where that money is going to come from. Laughably, there has even been some talk of it coming from existing revenue sources. Really? Where? Who is going to give up their taxpayer largess to pay for this? What special interest group is going to stand aside and allow $75 million to be taken from them to go to the education special interest?
Of course, we all know where it would come from: a new reach inside the taxpayer’s pocket.
There was an interesting quote in the article from Sly:
Quote: “One may ask, ‘What does my tax dollar pay for in South Dakota?’ Education uses 46 cents of every dollar. Taking care of people uses 39 cents. Protecting the public uses 10 cents. All the rest of state government uses five cents of every tax dollar. As a legislator, I try to be a steward of your tax dollars.”
So even though education currently consumes a whopping 46% of our taxes, that still isn’t enough???!
Because these liberal proponents of the education establishment are only slightly shy about demanding more of your hard-earned money to pay for the education establishment.
(I could go on about the fact that only about 15 cents of every dollar is being spent on legitimate government activity, but that’s another discussion for another time.)
Again, 46% of your taxes isn’t enough spent on education?
And let’s be clear that this is what the money is for. In South Dakota, the education establishment is little more than a machine for figuring out how to best suck in your tax dollars at both the state and federal level. This loot then goes to enrich the donors and friends of the RINO establishment in South Dakota. The palms get greased with YOUR money coming and going. RINOs in state government secure the taxpayer loot for government bureaucrats and favored private groups, and those individuals in turn give some of that largess back to the RINO government officials to fill their election coffers.
Meanwhile, teacher pay is relatively stagnant and children continue to get a mediocre education.
For years, the figures have shown that money does not equal academic performance. South Dakota spends among the least on education, yet is around the middle or the national average for performance. Meanwhile, Washington D.C. schools are usually at or near the top for education spending, and are usually at or near the bottom of academic performance. How much more clear of an illustration get you get that money <> academic performance?
Meanwhile, parents who care enough about their children’s education to actually take their children out of the mediocre public education system produce better results on a shoe-string budget. Yes, homeschooling parents spend money (on top of what they pay in taxes to support the public education system) out of their own pockets and time of their own schedule to educate their children at home–and usually with far better results. What they spend is far, far less than the per-pupil expenditure in the public school system.
But more taxpayer money does enrich the education bureaucracy. More money does enrich education administrators. More money does enrich all the side groups that live off taxpayer largess. More money does help keep nest-feathering politicians in office.
Is that really what you want to do with your money?
Or we could have real reform and do things like cut the education bureaucracy in government, cut the administrative overhead in the school system, cut waste in the system, and cut the extraneous garbage that has little to do with actually education children on the basics they need to be thinking, responsible citizens. That would leave quite a bit more money for teacher pay, and more classroom resources for the children the education system is supposed to serve.
But there is never any interest in that from the education bureaucrats.
There’s an election coming up next year. Remember the people calling for more of your money to be spent on bureaucracy and enriching political friends. Then vote appropriately in the PRIMARY and the general election next year.make America that shining city upon a hill.
*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative author and Life and Liberty News contributor
Read more from Bob Ellis and other conservative authors at American Clarion
P.S. think 75 million is a lot of money ? The state had 70 million unspent from last years budget. Lets watch the fight over who gets to spend that, lol
They/them = Blue Ribbon Task Farce.
The final report was very hard to read – disappointing doesn’t even begin to describe what “they” have done here. I have no words for that level of ignorance.
The governor told them to “reevaluate” the current funding formula – they did nothing close to this. They simply said – lets continue doing what we have been doing – give us an additional 75 million dollars so we can continue the same failures for another 20 years. The recommendations to keep the inflation/3% limit and 14/1 student teacher ratio is the same thing we are doing now. The inflation factor is the very thing that has “caused” us to be in the situation we are in. Between 2000 and 2014 k-12 funding has fallen behind inflation by 7% while all other state spend has exceeded inflation by 42%. The BRTF said they want that trend to continue, so sad.
ps – the 46% to “education” has nothing to do with k-12. Education in this case means all Tech school and board of regents (university budgets) spending with k-12 – however, the universities and tech schools have been getting about double the increases of k-12 for nearly 20 years. That dept. of revenue slide is just a bucket of Janklow era propaganda.