News Articles

Chairman’s Note: There’s just no denying it anymore: Republican legislators are attacking our children’s educators. Even before Governor Daugaard introduced his controversial education agenda, Republican legislators sought to end continuing contracts that afford teachers due process against arbitrary firing. Our educators are looking out for our students. We need to look out for them, because Republicans in Pierre just aren’t up for the challenge.

Chairman’s Note: South Dakotans deserve first consideration when it comes to policies from Pierre. It’s no wonder then that local staffing firms are upset that Governor Daugaard didn’t inform them before signing a $5 million contract to hire out-of-state workers for open South Dakota jobs. We can do better. South Dakotans deserve a more open process when their money is being spent.

Chairman’s Note: How much do South Dakota taxpayers spend on economic development? Nobody knows, and we’re not about to find out anytime soon because Republicans on the House State Affairs Committee killed HB 1108 on a party-line vote this Wednesday. Either Republicans don’t want to know how much we spend or they don’t think taxpayers deserve to the right to know how we spend taxpayer dollars.

Chairman’s Note: Invest South Dakota. That’s the principle behind House Democratic leader Rep. Mitch Fargen’s (D-Flandrea) bill to dedicate new tech-school scholarships for students pursuing programs of study in areas of critical need for South Dakota businesses. The simple fact is, we raise our kids here, and we educate them here. Let’s give them the means to train for the open South Dakota jobs that will keep them here into the future.

Chairman’s Note: The Democratic and Republican caucus leaders of the South Dakota Legislature will meet on SD Public Television’s SD Focus at 8pm CST, today, January 12, to discuss the 2012 Legislative Session. With the Governor’s workforce development and education reform proposals already stoking controversy, you won’t want to miss this. Join Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-Yankton) and Republican leaders on air by calling in your questions at  1-877-825-5788 (or 1-877-TALKPTV) or emailing them to sdfocus@sdpb.org.

Chairman’s Note: Ending tenure, imposing test-based teacher rankings, and instituting merit pay only for top teachers serves just to discourage new teachers, hurt collaboration between current teachers, and disregard years of inadequate education funding for our kids. Simply put, attacking teachers is no substitute for adequately funding our children’s education.

Chairman’s Note: After you all referred Governor Daugaard’s ‘Money for Millionaires’ bill last year, Daugaard is finally recognizing our need to better link education and economic development instead of pitting them against each other. It’s true: adequately training our workforce requires adequately funding their education. Unfortunately, his plan does little to expand our education systems and less to prepare our future workforce for thousands of open jobs across South Dakota.

Chairman’s Note: Governor Daugaard delivered his State of the State address to kick of the 2012 Legislative Session. In case you missed it, the Governor focused his efforts on workforce development and education reform. To improve workforce development, he wants to hire a company to recruit 1000 workers from out of state to fill open SD jobs at a cost of $4,000 per worker, train more welders and machinists, and expand the USD School of Medicine. To reform education, he wants to end tenure for all new teachers, impose statewide testing of students to rank teachers, and institute merit pay only for the top 20% of teachers in the state.

Chairman’s Note: Whether or not you agreed with his politics, Governor Janklow offered real vision for our state and worked tirelessly to make South Dakota a better place. Without doubt, he will be counted as one of our state’s foremost leaders in modern history. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.