Education Funding: Pierre Dropping the Ball

KELO directs me to a new U.S. Census Bureau report that finds South Dakota at the bottom (that headline is sounding too familiar) in education spending. The report, "Public Education Finances 2006" (big PDF alert!), finds that South Dakota ranks 41st (among the 50 states and DC) in total per-pupil spending on K-12 education. Perhaps more tellingly, we rank 44th in the amount we spend on K-12 education as a percentage of our statewide income.

Now let me nod right away to the naysayers: indeed, in education, money isn't everything. If throwing money at schools made kids smarter, the kids in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont would be twice as smart as South Dakota kids, but they aren't. South Dakota teachers and students are able to compete academically even on a shoestring budget. Our schools are good... but we're also lucky that we can for so long buck the economic maxim that "You get what you pay for."

Of course, if you take the economic position that the money we spend reflects our values, our low ranking in education spending suggests we don't value education as much as we say we do. Particularly guilty of this is the state government. Remember Governor Rounds's grumbling that the local districts are banking too much money in their reserves and not putting enough effort toward their actual expenditures? Well, even if the local districts are maintaining reserves, they're still shouldering their burden and then some. Consider these numbers for South Dakota:

1. Local revenue for education per student: $4,523 (rank: 24th; nat'l avg: $4,779).
2. State revenue for education per student: $2,922 (rank: 50th; nat'l avg: $5,018).

The Governor and the Legislature are the tightwads here. Our local districts are able to find per-student resources almost equal to the national average for local effort, while Pierre does $2,000 less per student compared to other state governments.

This disparity in local and state effort bothers me. I'd like local districts to be able to solve their own problems, but these numbers suggest they're already going above and beyond to make up for Pierre's stinginess. If we want competitive teacher salaries and more educational opportunities for our kids, Pierre has got to start doing its part.

post-script: Kremlinologists, parse this one: Education Secretary Rick Melmer says that South Dakota's low education finance ranking is a result of our not having an income tax. (I'm betting my neighbor Gerry has already clipped and saved that line for his debate briefs!)