No Illusions: "Dead Last" in School Funding Not Good Enough

I'm not on the school board (though you can change that by getting out to vote today!), but evidently I'm already thinking like school board members across the state. Open Forum, the blog of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, runs a "reality check" this morning on the U.S. Census report on public school finance. These folks in the know agree with my assessment that Pierre is dropping the ball on education funding:

The numbers are clear. When it comes to providing resources to South Dakota's K-12 school districts, the state is sitting on its hands while local property tax payers and the federal government are making comparatively large investments in our education system [ASBSD, "Reality Check: South Dakota Dead Last in State Per-Student Funding," Open Forum, 2008.04.08].

Now the usual response is that we don't need money for education: our teachers are doing a great job, and our kids are still beating the national averages on tests -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Suggestions to the contrary are interpreted as negative remarks about our teachers and our kids.

The ASBSD challenges that shiny-happy thinking head on:

For the longest time, though, lawmakers have been content to rest on the idea that South Dakota's test scores still compare fairly well. Little investment, great results - that's a recipe for value, they'd say.

Problem is...our test scores are leveling offand other states are sailing past South Dakota.

Sad as it is to admit, the debate on school funding could very soon shift from "You're doing fine with what we give you, why do you need more?" to "You can't even manage to improve with what we give you, why would we give you more?"

The school boards know the wall they're up against. They're taxing their residents at almost the national average to make up for Pierre's miserly support. They see the data that shows we're already losing our competitive edge in education. If we want to keep recruiting world-class teachers and turning out world-class graduates, we will need a paradigm shift (if not a party shift) in Pierre to shake lose the resources K-12 education needs.