"World-Class"? New Report Gives SD Education C-

I don't like this story, but I just heard SD House Majority Leader Rep. Larry Rhoden (R-29-Union Center) on SDPB Radio laying out Republican priorities for the 2008 session, and I have to throw the BS flag.

Terry Woster gives us this snippet of Rhoden's statements on education at the Capitol today:

The education agenda includes a commitment made last year to use $9 million from tobacco taxes for schools. Equal amounts would also be directed, as they were last year, to property-tax relief and Medicaid funding. Besides that, the party says it supports increasing state aid to schools by more than the rate of inflation, the standard set in law. The additional money should go to teacher pay and “improving the world-class education our children in South Dakota receive" [Terry Woster, "GOP Outlines Agenda for Session," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.01.10].

I know it's the political kiss of death to suggest that anything might be amiss in South Dakota. We're all supposed to smile like Mike and say everything's great, we just want to make things "even better."

Well, according to a new study from folks without a dog in our fight, there's more room for "even better" than Rhoden and Rounds will say. Quality Counts 2008, a report by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, gives the nation's schools an overall average grade of C. The report gives South Dakota schools a C-minus. The breakdown:

Category	SD Grade	Nat'l Avg
Students' chance for success	B	C+
K-12 achievement	C-	D+
Standards, assessments, and accountability	C+	B
Transitions and alignment	D-	C
The teaching profession	D	C
School Finance	C	C+
Overall Grade	C-	C
Source: Quality Counts 2008, SD Supplement Calculate your own Quality Counts grade!

Now faithful readers know I love our education system as much as anyone. I've spent most of my life participating in it. I want it to be the best in the world, and there are lots of good teachers doing everything they can with the resources they are given to make it so.

But as long as our leaders view education as an expense and not an investment (a line I heard Senator Heidepriem put to good use yesterday), well, we'll get what we pay for. And all the smiling and wishing and positive talk from the GOP won't change that.