School Financing for Rural Areas Causing Two Levels of Educa

School Financing for Rural Areas Causing Two Levels of Education

Financing schools in South Dakota is a disaster for rural communities and it could be said causing two levels of education. The schools in population centers are able to spend more per student and can pay their educators more.

Residents of Grant County should be opposing the current state formula and convince your legislators to change so all can have an equal educational opportunity.

Let's write our legislators!

Here is the South Dakota legislators site.

You can click here for the home page.

You can click here for the email form.


I put these links in for anyone who was interested in contacting their legislators. One also has to consider that dollars spent do not necessarily equate to better education. I think that even though we spend less dollars because we are a small school district we have better education because of our teachers having more personal attention to our children.

As far as the current system goes my understanding is that they allocate an equal number of dollars per student. Therefore schools with larger numbers of students get more money. Some would consider this fair.

What about the possibility of allocating according to school. For instance they could allocate money so that all schools have a wood shop, auto shop, computer lab (with current technology), science lab, etc. They could allow for the number of students. One school may only need 50 computers while another may need 100. In other words make sure the base is the same for all schools and then allocate money for each student to pay for the books and whatever else the expenses are.

I am just thinking outside the box here. :study:

The recent decision that individual school board members will not have to pay for attorneys may be a sign that the Supreme Court may overturn the Circuit Court's decision on funding of schools.

The Milbank School District is a party and stands to gain substantially if the Supreme Court overturns the lower courts decision.

Let's wait and see what happens.

I really want to see small schools survive, if their community wants them to. When my oldest kids were in Corona, a schools survival was based on numbers only. If a community wants to keep their school, they should be getting the per student stipend which increases most years. There is also a small schools subsidy which is offered, or at least was until recently. I am unaware of a change. Beyond that a community should be able to do whatever they want to keep a school open. They should also be able to operate a charter school if they desire. Many kids thrive in a small school the way many homeschooled kids thrive. With open enrollment it also fosters competition, if a child leaves one public school for another it is with the equivalent of going to that school w/4,000 plus in their pocket to 'spend' at their school of choice. The way schools are now funded it is the school with increasing enrollment that gets the bad deal. Dollars are based on the previous year's enrollment so they have fewer dollars to spread over the school population if enrollment goes up and more if enrollment goes down.
But i must ask, is anything 'broke' here? Using my family as an example we had 6 children, 2 were educated their earliest primary years in Corona, later primary at St Lawrence, the rest in the Milbank Public School System. 3 went to St Lawrence K-6 and completed their education in Milbank. 1 began at St. Lawrence, was homeschooled completely until 8th grade, when she began taking science and english classes at MMS and MHS. The oldest 4 all went to college where they did well, managed to skip pre calculus and some english classes because they were well prepared. They each have a BA or a BS in a variety of disciplines. One is working toward an advanced degree, another plans to do the same. A third switched careers and is working as a nurse while she keeps going to school for further nursing education. 2 are still in college, one was a national merit scholar, both are on the dean's list at their respective colleges. So i contend that from 1987 when my kids began in Milbank, through 2008 when the last one graduated, the school was doing a good job through times of financial feast and famine. Most of my kid's school friends have some post secondary education and/or certification, so my family is not unusual. The playing field will never be level, each school has it's pros and cons. If a student goes to a post secondary place of any sort, they are thrown in with students from all over the country, even all over the world. That is when we know for sure our school stands up scholastically.
By the way, i feel that i had an excellent education in mpls, mn. i have no college degree (and no regrets about that) but i have a good foundation. The same for students here who make that choice.