Temper Tantrums for Taxes! Really?
Stop the Madness! Sioux Falls - sign the petition. Rapid City, Aberdeen, Pierre - get ready to take action!
Elected Officials, In case it isn’t 100% clear, we (the citizens) are under financial pressure and we need you to start being more efficient and to cut your budgets. We LITERALLY can’t afford the amount of spending we have and you need to start lightening our load. That means NO tax increases. NO fee increases. NO, HĀ, NADA! And, yes, BUDGET CUTS.
It’s the craziest thing most of us have ever witnessed. People saw a standard of living drop of 1% in 2023 alone. If you add that up over 15 years that’s 15% drop in standard of living (based on the real inflation numbers compared to real wage increase, this isn’t surprising at all). And the citizens are telling officials they need a break, yet the officials keep spending.
What is even more surreal is the Sioux Falls School Board is throwing a tantrum over a small budget cut and is doing an opt out. Yes, opt out that means MORE taxes (get ready Rapid City, Aberdeen, etc. you are likely next). It’s as if the School Board members live in some type of alternative universe where they think they can just keep spending, spending, and SPENDING.
In case they haven’t had a course in basic economics, unlimited spending is unsustainable (impossible)!
As a result, the public schools are going to have to figure out how they are going to get their spending under control. If the problem is the children of foreign workers are way below grade level and do not speak the language, they need to state that clearly. That way we can force companies that bring in these workers to pay the full cost of the education for these children.
If there are problems with kids of parents who are in reentry (after serving time in prison) or kids of parents who are in prison creating issues (about 70% of the kids of with an incarcerated parent have psychological problems, and each prisoner has about 2.5 kids), that needs to be disclosed so we can reduce the load. Right now around 850 prisoners are reentering in Lincoln and Minnehaha Counties each year. Then there are 510 people in the Minnehaha County jail (part of which are from Lincoln County), 245 people in the Sioux Falls minimum security facility, and about 1300 in Jamison and the Hill. Spreading that out so people are incarcerated and reenter closer to where they lived prior to incarceration could be a stabilizing influence. If that is the problem, say so. We can probably figure out a way to help you.
If you are having issues because you are offering too many subjects and that costs too much, we can probably figure out a solution there too. Some places are allowing students to meet art, music, and PE requirements through approved off campus options. This could reduce the number of kids in these classes.
If the issue is the huge cost of athletics, we can probably figure out a way around that one too by sharing facilities. In fact, that used to be common place until in the 1990s.
In summary, its time to work together and cut costs rather than you just asking for more and more money. That’s crazy and unsustainable for everyone. And honestly, pretty disrespectful when you have been told for years your spending is out of control.
South Dakota Voices Response: Cassandra, thank you for sharing this information. Yes, things appear to be completely out of control. We are hearing about millions/hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent for prison studies, salary studies, building studies.... You name it, it is being studied with our tax dollars. These "studies" are happening at the state, county, city, and school district levels. Honestly, that just sounds like a handout to a consultant. Either you need a building or you don't. None of it makes much sense to the people who work in the real world.
Email comment from CS: "ANOTHER GREAT article!! I will tell you, my friends are/have been janitors in small town SD school districts. The amount of QUALITY curriculum and school things thrown out every day astound my friends. I also have several teacher friends who SPEND like crazy at the end of EVERY year - "it's our budget, if we do not spend it we will not get it next year" - so they buy stuff they may or may not use - insane stuff just to spend that budget. Blows my mind.
Mr. Pay, we really appreciate your input, but everything seems to be about more and more money (unwillingness to cut your budget in any meaningful way). People are being crushed and can't afford the more and more money (check out the graphs and the posts about real inflation). The point of the article was to talk about some possible cost drivers and open the floor to discussion. If you don't like what is being suggested, how specifically would you suggest we cut the education budget? It's over $1.6 billion per year, many of our kids are below grade level and we have way too many people in prison (education system is failing them). Please don't suggest a couple million here or there, but a significant amount (like $160 million or more, that's around 10%). Saying continue spending and being negative about almost every suggestion doesn't seem like a reasonable option when people are seeing a 1% standard of living drop per year.