I will have to give Cynthia Mickelson props, she is one of the rare local public servants who actually wants the public to understand what she does and why. I don’t always agree with Mickelson, but she is willing to have that conversation and provide answers when asked. She has always either returned my calls, my texts or emails and doesn’t shy away from having difficult policy discussions. You can fault elected officials for NOT being transparent or just blatant laziness but it is difficult to become frustrated with an official who wants to work with you.
Cynthia’s N/L was informative, but the chart below really astonished me with how we fund public education now, opposed to 70 years ago;
Over the years, to keep property taxes down, the federal and state governments have just kicked-in more. That’s how I see it. Or, should we say they have been lowered because of the greater federal and state contributions?
It’s going to be a great newsletter. I subscribe. I enjoy seeing Republicans who are pro public education.
Good history lesson.
Not certain the direction Mickelson wants to lead with info from this table, however, other than to acknowledge the strings (“requirements and expectations”) which are attached to federal and state funding.
In addition to a conflict with priorities of local parents and taxpayers, the “requirements and expectations” place a burden of time and cost upon public school systems.
In before ‘Woodstock’ with this musing –
“Say, do you remember back in 2014 when then candidate for US Senate Marion M Rounds blathered about eliminating the US Dept of Education? That doing so would ‘free up more money for schools’?
If you look at this table, I ‘spose Rounds thought ‘keep the money flowing from federal coffers, but relax thd red tape’, huh?”
Money absent of oversight and accountability!?!?
It IS the South Dakota way!
It is the Rounds way!
#EB5 #GearUp #tr?Shrimp
Federal: it is pretty consistent since the 70s. 2009-2010 bump was from fed response to near depression, also had federal bump up during pandemic.
State: Several changes in student funding formula during the last 40 years. The early 80s was the farm crisis and efforts to lower property taxes. Janklow promised more state ed funding and delivered. 1992-1993 is in the Dakota Proposition era and suits against the state for not funding education as the state Constitution required. This was a few years before the ed funding formula was changed to increase state funding to alleviate property taxes. This was not new education funding, but the education funding formula was used to pass through tax relief. 1998-1999 Mickelson Administration fully implemented new state funding formula. As state above 2009-2010 was due to feds helping out education during near depression after financial crisis.
Local: There has been a consistent attempt since the late 1970s to keep property taxes down and equalized through increased state funding. That has come at the cost of local control of education spending. Districts are limited in how much they can increase local levies unless they “opt out” of the state revenue limits.
It’s also fascinating the state’s commitment went down when comparing the 83-84′ numbers to the 92-93′ numbers. Yet, video lottery began to be a cash cow for the state in ’89 with promises that it would be a panacea for education funding, but apparently not and also not under her late father-in-law’s gubernatorial tenure during that same time frame.