One of the big arguments that comes up with bringing up teacher pay is bringing up the pay of other professionals. Is it fair to raise taxes on all of these OTHER professionals so teachers can get paid more? As I have said, it is purely ignorant to raise regressive sales taxes for teacher pay when the money is already there (heck, probably sitting in reserves). This is about presenting intelligent plans to raise teacher pay, not knee jerk reactions. People want this increase SO bad, they are willing to fall back on fiscally irresponsible and ignorant taxation plans to get it. That my friends is called GREED.
Let’s pay teachers more, but let’s pay everybody else more to, because if that happens, there will be plenty of school funding sources to go around.
I hope the sales tax plan fails on Monday, but I also hope a doable plan comes forward without raising sales taxes.
I loved this letter to the editor that compared school districts to families on fixed incomes, even though they should be budgeting properly, they still go and buy their Starbucks Latte everyday (LOL).
http://www.argusleader.com/story/opinion/voices/2016/02/21/voice-tax-increases-needed/80707590/
This couldn’t be more true if you look at the salary contract our Super has, or what the District’s communications director makes, or that we had a enough money to drop millions into new locker rooms at Howard Wood.
But hey, teachers need to get paid more. Sure they do, but instead of trying to bleed more out of the sales tax, maybe they need to go to their sugar daddies (administrators and school boards) and get the money.
We have a teacher shortage in SD. The cause is low pay … 20% lower than the next lowest state! Is there a better source of funding for this pay increase? Yes. But in this backward state we do not have a choice. Republicans dominate the state government and this is the only option at this moment. If we don’t address this issue now we lose.
Mr. l3wis points out a really important thing. No matter what happens we need to get after the fatcat administrators and bleed their money bags to feed these teachers. Eliminate their reserved parking and slash the salaries that let them live in the mansions on the hill.
Why is it that district superintendents get rich while lowly teachers eat beans and buy school supplies for students? Perhaps it’s time for a teachers union. In some cases the mafia is a better way to manage until there’s equilibrium that becomes responsible fairness and public benefit.
“If we don’t address this issue now we lose.”
I don’t believe that for one second. BTW, there is an alternative plan that doesn’t include raising sales taxes. You may argue the ones voting against this plan are obstructing, but they actually have an alternative plan.
SD tax rates rank @ #38 in the country. All of three surrounding states have higher rates to SD.
We should rank #1-2 for taxes considering we don’t make shit to pay those taxes. But as long as the teachers get paid more, who cares about the other professionals.
I believe you misinterpret #38. That means 37 states pay MORE than SD residents do. And only 11 pay less. That makes SD a LOW TAX state. Meanwhile, all the surrounding states – who pay teachers better, also pay higher taxes. Get it?
The other thing that is important to remember is that teachers in surrounding states also have less total instructional time and more education assistants and paraprofessionals. Remember in the BRTF, workload was listed as the #1 or #2 issue. Yes, we need to raise teacher pay to competitive levels, but also understand that teachers are working harder, providing more direct instructional time, and receiving less supportive services than surrounding states. To be competitive with other states by focusing on salary, we should actually be maintaining workloads and have the highest salary in the region. Is that what’s best for kids?!?! I’ll leave that up to teachers to provide input.
Not saying I agree with the tax hike but the alternative plan must have sucked. If someone had figured out how to raise teachers pay at this level without raising taxes, they would have let the public know about it. It would have made that person a political rock star in South Dakota.
The fact they tried to kill this bill before reveling the detail of their bill shows they had little or nothing to offer.
As I humorously joked elsewhere today (much easier to do now that I am not a resident of your fair state)…
“Oh, what to do when your average teacher pay is 50th in the nation and your tax system is the fourth-most regressive in the country, according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy?”
The four states with the most regressive tax systems – Texas, Florida, Washington, and South Dakota – have no state income tax. Big shocker, right?
I know that’s not news to many here. But sadly, the rest of South Dakota outside this blog hasn’t smartened up enough to figure out that “no income tax” isn’t a real benefit to the majority of everyday South Dakotans. It is a way that rich people dupe working stiffs into thinking they’re getting a good deal.
So the solution to poor teacher pay is to let the poors of South Dakota pay more for that too? That’s rich, right there. But by all means, tax them to make your teachers better (allegedly), which will make your kids smarter (allegedly), which will make them more likely to never live or work in South Dakota after they graduate from high school (most definitely).
Real winning strategy they’ve got in Pierre.
Brady Mallory contacted me today about this listing. I told him it came from Lynne Disanto’s FB page. We got into a discussion about the accuracy, and I agree some of it is possibly inaccurate, but I also told him you need to take in classifications and how in the SF MSA pay may be higher, off setting the state average.
http://www.keloland.com/news/article/politics/lawmaker-list-of-low-paying-jobs-not-entirely-accurate
Either way, if you watch the story, if some of these jobs are not at 50th, most don’t get above 40th.