Thank you for the article. Everything seems so imbalanced. Personally I think every tax funded University that has endowments over XX million (fill in the X) should have a reduction in their student funding formula. And, these SD students should come first for breaks on tuition.
You have identified a very small part of a very large problem at the six public universities overseen by the South Dakota Board of Regents.
It seems to me that an examination by an outside auditing firm should be done to determine whether or not the Universities in question are actually a good value for the taxpayers of South Dakota.
I would suggest payment in full up front year-by year by foreign students with a rebate of tuition beginning after two years of employment in SD through the fifth year. That's what I had to do when I studied overseas. Overall university is too expensive and salaries too high due to the decades of the federal loans to students that enabled them to incur too much burdensome debt. University personnel needed to hustle more, use their endowment income more effectively to help keep costs low before those federal programs began.
The problem isn't professor salaries. Politicians have prioritized cutting taxes over education. When I started college about 60 years ago, working a minimum wage job over the summer break generated roughly enough money to pay a school year's tuition at a state university. Today, it doesn't come close. There's a student debt crisis. It's ruined lives and won't ever be paid because it keeps them behind. When they die, the debt will be written off. Preventing student debt from being discharged in bankruptcy is a very bad policy. Anything left after paying ten percent of income for twenty years should be discharged.
I agree, for the college model to work, wages have to track with inflation and college costs have to stay in line with inflation. Universities have increased costs more than inflation and wages have been depressed so much that it is almost impossible for many college grads to make it. Sadly, a significant amount of the wage depression is due to foreign worker programs. In addition, there are some majors that are obsolete and should be discontinued.
Um…consider that many of this foreign students become U.S. citizens. Some are teaching in South Dakota. Some go on help South Dakota economically. Consider that the money that is taken off is repaid by what they spend and/or what they create or give back to the community.
One has to wonder if the university salaries might be better if the foreigners were not depressing wages (common problem with foreign work visas). Is the goal of the system to get the foreign students here and give them work visas to depress wages?
There is a shortage in STEM, this is my field and I've seen the shortage grow year over year. I understand your point, but I have not seen this claim in science and engineering fields. If you're worth a damn you can get top wages globally.
Even the work visa plan often goes unfilled, globally there is a massive shortage (good degrees for decent institutions) for STEM related grads.
The tuition reduction of $6500 per year is the maximum, you have to be a rockstar student, regardless if you are foreign or US citizen.
This is the Coyote's Beginnings scholarship, total of $11M per year is awarded. Of the $11M Unite for USD raised $1.938M. Awards go out with a breakdown of about 20~25% incoming Freshman class, total recipients, about 2k to 3k students over a four year period. Of this Internationals 40 to 80 might receive it yearly totaling 160 to 320 across four years
Currently there are many computer science related jobs in South Dakota that are unfilled, why not educate them here and they can work at CITI in Sioux Falls or Datronics in Brookings they have openings.
Regarding the argument that computer science programs can be narrowed down to one South Dakota University doesn't make sense;
*SDSU: M.S. in Computer Science with graduate assistantships, strong undergraduate CS program.
* DSU: Renowned for Cyber Operations and Computer Science (NSA Center of Excellence).
* SDSMT: CS tied to engineering applications.
South Dakota Board of Regents estimates 1100 to 1850 foreign students in the States University system in 2025.
Sadly, there is a lot of cheating overseas (been there, seen it). Most foreign students come with scholarships. The tech jobs here are unfilled because of the wage depression. No one wants to take the jobs because of the wages. It's ridiculous. As far as all the tech programs on one campus, it's done that way all over the world. It could easily be done here. There would be a tremendous cost savings.
Foreign students may come with scholarships, however they have to prove talent with the GPA. Go to Glassdoor.com, look at what Apple, Meta, Google, pay well in excess of $175k plus reserve stock units, excellent benefits too. From the big hitters, go on down the line, you may find an entry-level to mid-level kind of similar job in SD for $85k starting.
Not sure what 'tech jobs' you may be referring to, can you share?
Sadly, $85K is not a good starting salary for an engineer (and most are not close to that level). When inflation is considered the starting salary compared to the late 1980s should be around 140+K to over $200K depending on the discipline (adjusted for inflation). When there are electricians that are 28 years old making $140K in South Dakota why would someone spend 4 years in school and over $100K on an education to make a fraction of that amount. Carpenters start at $50K with no experience and can quickly jump to $70K. After four of five years a good finish carpenter can command $130K+ . No school, no debt. We have not had significant wage depression in these fields, yet (although they are trying hard now by opening the Southern border).
Implying no school, no debt I think is a stretch, my skill sets include; carpentry, machinist, tool maker, mechanical engineer, apprentice electrician and finish carpenter. None of these can be done without education and in most cases, education + on the job training.
Shall we start with electricians, in SD we have the Apprentice most have a 2 yr technical degree, the Journeyman must complete 8,000 hours on the job training and testing, at the Master level its typically with more than an additional 2,000 hours experience and more rigorous testing.
Now the Master Finish Carpenter, these are few and far between, the work is flawless, beautiful, they are typically trade school educated, in fact I know several who are mechanical engineering graduates. You must be able to understand and apply trigonometry and think in 3D geometry as well as operate a huge variety of tools and the out come must be perfect, perfectionist is a required trait.
Tossing in ‘carpenters’, this can mean so many things, is it the framing crew, depending upon the job lets say an apartment building, the tolerances for the work ± 1/4”, they’ll say let the other trades guys deal with it and leave for the next job site.
These are often base wages, and are all over the place, lower ($40k) for the ‘good enough’ guys, unless they up the skill game they will continue to be at the bottom of the building trades wage index.
Moving on to the folks building the >$700k homes and high end commercial spaces, the previously mentioned careless framers at not on the crew. The entire project has oversight; here we have the precision framers, electricians, dry wall, painter and finish work folks earning the rewards of a disciplined life.
This is not some easy breezy job where you walking in and magically after 4~6 years make big bucks.
In general the life time earnings of the 4 yr engineer degree will pay off better, the builder is easy to lay off if interest rates can’t justify building, unlikely the degree holder has that unemployment exposure.
To my previous point, posted earlier, the $85K engineering/technical jobs offered in SD going unfilled, even while the employer is looking for EB-2 highly skilled foreigner goes unfilled, your right $85k is low pay for the asked requirements.
Educated, able to communicate in English both written and oral, able to do basic math through algebra, this eliminates many who came through the borders.
Risk and rewards, interesting finding is that if tradespeople run successful businesses, their lifetime earnings could exceed $4 million, potentially rivaling engineers, due to profits from contracting work.
For more details on engineering salaries, visit BLS Occupational Employment.
Table: Estimated Lifetime Wages Over 40-Year Career
Four-Year Degree Engineering Graduate $4,480,000
Highly Skilled Finish Carpenter $3,125,000
Highly Skilled Electrician $3,200,000
Role South Dakota Mean Wage (2023) National Mean Wage (2023) Difference (%)
South Dakota’s economy, driven by agriculture, tourism, and some manufacturing, may limit high-paying opportunities compared to tech-heavy states Major Industries in South Dakota.
However, construction projects, including residential and commercial developments, create demand for skilled tradespeople. The state’s lower cost of living (86.7% of national average) means salaries are depressed in nominal terms, but purchasing power remains competitive, with $85,175 offering the same buying power as $98,241 nationally.
It would be great if SD could move more towards the tech and manufacturing space, higher wages for everyone.
I have hired these tradespeople recently. None of them have a formal post secondary educations. They are making the rates listed. The issue for the professions that require post secondary education is the wage depression, the delayed entry into the market, and the cost of the education. These costs have to be subtracted from the lifetime income (these are real costs) and they are costs that the trades do not have. In other words, we have to deal with the wage depression if we want to have a good supply of engineers, etc. Otherwise, people will choose other professions.
Let's agree that market driven wages within the skilled trades exist. Imagine the supply and demand curve over decades has increased, I've seen it. High schools pushed college over trades for decades, the trade worker was mocked, unskilled folks and the pool of workers has shrunk, supply demand. Don't conflate this with why engineering and technical degrees have stagnated, especially in SD.
All the while there are an increased, diverse range of 'technical and engineering degrees', which some are in less demand.
Maybe it is causation and correlation error in your observation of suppressed wages, I'm not finding it.
Again I see professional degree jobs in SD with high requirements paying upwards of $85k going unfilled, and these are even open to foreign applicants even with the offer of a legit pathway towards citizenship. Is there a lack of interest or simply the pay is much lower in SD, I think it is the latter.
Delayed income of starting work at 18yrs vs 22yrs, its real, possibly a $90k to $120k less for 4yr degree holders delayed entry into the labor market. I worked through college, paid as a went, no one paid my way, without parents $ support.
My previous employer, biggest tech company in the world involved me in working with recruiters because we couldn't find anyone. Most applicants didn't meet the requirements, many did not wish to relocate from the Midwest to the West Coast. Next, my interviews shifted towards outside the US, it was very challenging. There are a lot of reasons highly skilled professional jobs remain unfilled in the US and it's not because companies are being cheap. (not the big ones with money, no problem they will pay you what you are worth) Cheap companies will not prosper, bottom of the barrel hires, whether foreign or domestic will not give the value add needed to compete.
Please show me some details on wage suppression, I'd appreciate it. Thanks
We seem to recently have a problem with people (students) that come from another countries (immigrants) which almost all of us are a generation or three removed come being immigrants. Which I might remind is what made US great. We (this country) desperately need immigration. US birth rate is 1.08, we need a rate of 2 for population to not decrease. We need an increase in younger people to support our economy. The primary example is Social Security & Medicare it takes “more people pulling the wagon than riding in it”. Without immigration pretty soon many of those programs will collapse. Now don’t you think some of those should be top of their class college graduates and not all just first generation farm workers? I think so!
Think a little longer term and I assure you we are NOT over taxed in SD.
What is the cause of the low birthrate? Part of the problem is fertility. It has been steadily dropping (food, preventative medical treatments, chemicals?). Another part is the wage depression that is making it very hard for families to get by. Probably need to stop the wage depression and address fertility issues.
The ability to have control of birth rate is obviously a major part. However, women being recognized as a capable of careers and important there. When I was growing up average family size was 3 to 5 kids and up to 10 kids we were all aware of. Women going into careers and finding their way found to move up in their careers they could not manage a large family and even if they were the major bread winner husbands did not take over child care. Thus smaller families. Of course cost of raising children and and complications of large families had an affect.
Good points, but we also need to nourish a culture/society of life that encourages increased birthrates because there's hope that our children can do as well or better than we have. There's been too much emphasis on people being the plague on planet earth as well as as well as propaganda against being male or female, along with the corollary that there's considerable flexibility on what being a "man" or "woman" is defined. We are all different yet very much the same.
Higher income South Dakotans aren't overtaxed. Lower income groups might be. We tax groceries, which doesn't bother people like me but burdens young families. The property tax bills currently being considered stick it to young families struggling to buy their first homes but help older people like me who've had a successful career and are comfortably retired.
I agree with all that. However, by comparison even with sales tax on food SD are not over taxed compared to the rest of the civilized world. People in the US have a very high lifestyle expectation compared to rest of the world.
Perhaps the issue is not lifestyle, but that people would like to determine where they place their money, because the government has not been a good steward (graft and poor performance). Take the $1.6 billion/year for public K-12 education in South Dakota and somewhere between 60 and 80% are not at grade level.
Out-of-state students are charged a different rate than in-state students. USD charges approx $9,432 in-state tuition and $12,942 out-of-state tuition. The out-of-state students are more likely to live on campus and contribute to cultural diversity.
Would you be so kind and to share your source? The USD website and person answering the phone confirmed that the international students get a $6500 discount if they have the grades and the test scores. It appears that all the schools in the state offer a substantial discount.
The term "professors" isn't in my post. Colleges spend millions on people who coach kids' games. Those people are called "coaches", they're not called professors.
There is a constant complaint about college cost but then nobody questions the enormous wages being paid to 'professors' that cannot be fired. The other problem is government subsidies. Get rid of both over paid 'professors' and subsidies and the price will come down across the board.
Most sports programs aren't cash flow positive. Football is sometimes an exception. Has anyone looked at the numbers for the universities in South Dakota?
Never heard of college professors coaching kids games. Please pass on more information on this. I know high school and below get over time or bonus pay for after school sports, but that is a different topic.
Coaches coach kids games and some are paid much much more than professors, some are paid millions of dollars annually. Professors educate students. Coaches entertain alumni.
Are all the universities under the same overall agency or is each one begging at the legislature independently. When we went to school in Colorado and later lived there, ther was not a universal board for all schools. The Board of Regents administered Colorado University in Boulder, The Board of Agriculture ran Colorado State in Fort Collins as well as Colorado A&M in Fort Morgan. The university in Greely started out as a teacher's college and was run by somebody else. All of them competing at the Legislature's feeding trough and competeing to be the biggest, pretist, and richest.
With the high cost of higher education and housing and the tax policies that favors higher income and net worth folks, the younger generation is stretched to the limit and those who are fiscally responsible put off childbearing until they can afford it. By the time they can afford it, they're beyond childbearing bearing age and need to secure their retirement.
Thank you for the article. Everything seems so imbalanced. Personally I think every tax funded University that has endowments over XX million (fill in the X) should have a reduction in their student funding formula. And, these SD students should come first for breaks on tuition.
Ageed
You have identified a very small part of a very large problem at the six public universities overseen by the South Dakota Board of Regents.
It seems to me that an examination by an outside auditing firm should be done to determine whether or not the Universities in question are actually a good value for the taxpayers of South Dakota.
I think the results would be shocking.
Transparency is always a good idea!
And in this case, long overdue.
Reduced college tuition for foreign students is another incredibly stupid thing that's been going on.
I would suggest payment in full up front year-by year by foreign students with a rebate of tuition beginning after two years of employment in SD through the fifth year. That's what I had to do when I studied overseas. Overall university is too expensive and salaries too high due to the decades of the federal loans to students that enabled them to incur too much burdensome debt. University personnel needed to hustle more, use their endowment income more effectively to help keep costs low before those federal programs began.
The problem isn't professor salaries. Politicians have prioritized cutting taxes over education. When I started college about 60 years ago, working a minimum wage job over the summer break generated roughly enough money to pay a school year's tuition at a state university. Today, it doesn't come close. There's a student debt crisis. It's ruined lives and won't ever be paid because it keeps them behind. When they die, the debt will be written off. Preventing student debt from being discharged in bankruptcy is a very bad policy. Anything left after paying ten percent of income for twenty years should be discharged.
I agree, for the college model to work, wages have to track with inflation and college costs have to stay in line with inflation. Universities have increased costs more than inflation and wages have been depressed so much that it is almost impossible for many college grads to make it. Sadly, a significant amount of the wage depression is due to foreign worker programs. In addition, there are some majors that are obsolete and should be discontinued.
Um…consider that many of this foreign students become U.S. citizens. Some are teaching in South Dakota. Some go on help South Dakota economically. Consider that the money that is taken off is repaid by what they spend and/or what they create or give back to the community.
One has to wonder if the university salaries might be better if the foreigners were not depressing wages (common problem with foreign work visas). Is the goal of the system to get the foreign students here and give them work visas to depress wages?
There is a shortage in STEM, this is my field and I've seen the shortage grow year over year. I understand your point, but I have not seen this claim in science and engineering fields. If you're worth a damn you can get top wages globally.
Even the work visa plan often goes unfilled, globally there is a massive shortage (good degrees for decent institutions) for STEM related grads.
Could it be because we have depressed wages so much that it make more sense to become an electrician than an engineer.
There's no justification for charging foreigners less than South Dakota citizens.
USD awards a max of $11M per year in Coyote's Beginnings scholarships, of the $11M almost $2M came from Unite for USD, they raised $1.938M.
This is the Coyote's Beginnings scholarship, total of $11M per year is awarded most of those awarded are US folks.
Awards go out with a breakdown of about 20~25% incoming Freshman class, total recipients, about 2k to 3k students over a four year period.
Of this International students, about 40 to 80 might receive it yearly totaling 160 to 320 across four years.
Curious why we are giving any SD money to someone from a foreign country. We have plenty of kids here who could use it.
That's all well and good, but I doubt that the foreigners help our economy any more than the citizens who paid full price.
The tuition reduction of $6500 per year is the maximum, you have to be a rockstar student, regardless if you are foreign or US citizen.
This is the Coyote's Beginnings scholarship, total of $11M per year is awarded. Of the $11M Unite for USD raised $1.938M. Awards go out with a breakdown of about 20~25% incoming Freshman class, total recipients, about 2k to 3k students over a four year period. Of this Internationals 40 to 80 might receive it yearly totaling 160 to 320 across four years
Currently there are many computer science related jobs in South Dakota that are unfilled, why not educate them here and they can work at CITI in Sioux Falls or Datronics in Brookings they have openings.
Regarding the argument that computer science programs can be narrowed down to one South Dakota University doesn't make sense;
*SDSU: M.S. in Computer Science with graduate assistantships, strong undergraduate CS program.
* DSU: Renowned for Cyber Operations and Computer Science (NSA Center of Excellence).
* SDSMT: CS tied to engineering applications.
South Dakota Board of Regents estimates 1100 to 1850 foreign students in the States University system in 2025.
Rough Total by Category
* Computer Science/IT: 400-600
* Engineering: 150-250
* Business: 200-350
* Health/Education: 150-250
* Other: 200-400
Sadly, there is a lot of cheating overseas (been there, seen it). Most foreign students come with scholarships. The tech jobs here are unfilled because of the wage depression. No one wants to take the jobs because of the wages. It's ridiculous. As far as all the tech programs on one campus, it's done that way all over the world. It could easily be done here. There would be a tremendous cost savings.
Foreign students may come with scholarships, however they have to prove talent with the GPA. Go to Glassdoor.com, look at what Apple, Meta, Google, pay well in excess of $175k plus reserve stock units, excellent benefits too. From the big hitters, go on down the line, you may find an entry-level to mid-level kind of similar job in SD for $85k starting.
Not sure what 'tech jobs' you may be referring to, can you share?
Thank you
Sadly, $85K is not a good starting salary for an engineer (and most are not close to that level). When inflation is considered the starting salary compared to the late 1980s should be around 140+K to over $200K depending on the discipline (adjusted for inflation). When there are electricians that are 28 years old making $140K in South Dakota why would someone spend 4 years in school and over $100K on an education to make a fraction of that amount. Carpenters start at $50K with no experience and can quickly jump to $70K. After four of five years a good finish carpenter can command $130K+ . No school, no debt. We have not had significant wage depression in these fields, yet (although they are trying hard now by opening the Southern border).
Implying no school, no debt I think is a stretch, my skill sets include; carpentry, machinist, tool maker, mechanical engineer, apprentice electrician and finish carpenter. None of these can be done without education and in most cases, education + on the job training.
Shall we start with electricians, in SD we have the Apprentice most have a 2 yr technical degree, the Journeyman must complete 8,000 hours on the job training and testing, at the Master level its typically with more than an additional 2,000 hours experience and more rigorous testing.
Now the Master Finish Carpenter, these are few and far between, the work is flawless, beautiful, they are typically trade school educated, in fact I know several who are mechanical engineering graduates. You must be able to understand and apply trigonometry and think in 3D geometry as well as operate a huge variety of tools and the out come must be perfect, perfectionist is a required trait.
Tossing in ‘carpenters’, this can mean so many things, is it the framing crew, depending upon the job lets say an apartment building, the tolerances for the work ± 1/4”, they’ll say let the other trades guys deal with it and leave for the next job site.
These are often base wages, and are all over the place, lower ($40k) for the ‘good enough’ guys, unless they up the skill game they will continue to be at the bottom of the building trades wage index.
Moving on to the folks building the >$700k homes and high end commercial spaces, the previously mentioned careless framers at not on the crew. The entire project has oversight; here we have the precision framers, electricians, dry wall, painter and finish work folks earning the rewards of a disciplined life.
This is not some easy breezy job where you walking in and magically after 4~6 years make big bucks.
In general the life time earnings of the 4 yr engineer degree will pay off better, the builder is easy to lay off if interest rates can’t justify building, unlikely the degree holder has that unemployment exposure.
To my previous point, posted earlier, the $85K engineering/technical jobs offered in SD going unfilled, even while the employer is looking for EB-2 highly skilled foreigner goes unfilled, your right $85k is low pay for the asked requirements.
Educated, able to communicate in English both written and oral, able to do basic math through algebra, this eliminates many who came through the borders.
Risk and rewards, interesting finding is that if tradespeople run successful businesses, their lifetime earnings could exceed $4 million, potentially rivaling engineers, due to profits from contracting work.
For more details on engineering salaries, visit BLS Occupational Employment.
Table: Estimated Lifetime Wages Over 40-Year Career
Four-Year Degree Engineering Graduate $4,480,000
Highly Skilled Finish Carpenter $3,125,000
Highly Skilled Electrician $3,200,000
Role South Dakota Mean Wage (2023) National Mean Wage (2023) Difference (%)
Civil Engineers $78,200 $95,840 -18.4%
Mechanical Engineers $85,400 $95,790 -10.9%
Electrical Engineers $95,600 $102,000 -6.3%
Industrial Engineers $81,500 $93,760-13.1%
Engineers, All Other $88,700 $111,780 -20.6%
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm
South Dakota’s economy, driven by agriculture, tourism, and some manufacturing, may limit high-paying opportunities compared to tech-heavy states Major Industries in South Dakota.
However, construction projects, including residential and commercial developments, create demand for skilled tradespeople. The state’s lower cost of living (86.7% of national average) means salaries are depressed in nominal terms, but purchasing power remains competitive, with $85,175 offering the same buying power as $98,241 nationally.
It would be great if SD could move more towards the tech and manufacturing space, higher wages for everyone.
https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/compensation/salary-trends-through-salary-survey-a-historical-perspective-on-starting-salaries-for-new-college-graduates/
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm
https://sdgoed.com/key-industries/
I have hired these tradespeople recently. None of them have a formal post secondary educations. They are making the rates listed. The issue for the professions that require post secondary education is the wage depression, the delayed entry into the market, and the cost of the education. These costs have to be subtracted from the lifetime income (these are real costs) and they are costs that the trades do not have. In other words, we have to deal with the wage depression if we want to have a good supply of engineers, etc. Otherwise, people will choose other professions.
Let's agree that market driven wages within the skilled trades exist. Imagine the supply and demand curve over decades has increased, I've seen it. High schools pushed college over trades for decades, the trade worker was mocked, unskilled folks and the pool of workers has shrunk, supply demand. Don't conflate this with why engineering and technical degrees have stagnated, especially in SD.
All the while there are an increased, diverse range of 'technical and engineering degrees', which some are in less demand.
Maybe it is causation and correlation error in your observation of suppressed wages, I'm not finding it.
Again I see professional degree jobs in SD with high requirements paying upwards of $85k going unfilled, and these are even open to foreign applicants even with the offer of a legit pathway towards citizenship. Is there a lack of interest or simply the pay is much lower in SD, I think it is the latter.
Delayed income of starting work at 18yrs vs 22yrs, its real, possibly a $90k to $120k less for 4yr degree holders delayed entry into the labor market. I worked through college, paid as a went, no one paid my way, without parents $ support.
My previous employer, biggest tech company in the world involved me in working with recruiters because we couldn't find anyone. Most applicants didn't meet the requirements, many did not wish to relocate from the Midwest to the West Coast. Next, my interviews shifted towards outside the US, it was very challenging. There are a lot of reasons highly skilled professional jobs remain unfilled in the US and it's not because companies are being cheap. (not the big ones with money, no problem they will pay you what you are worth) Cheap companies will not prosper, bottom of the barrel hires, whether foreign or domestic will not give the value add needed to compete.
Please show me some details on wage suppression, I'd appreciate it. Thanks
We seem to recently have a problem with people (students) that come from another countries (immigrants) which almost all of us are a generation or three removed come being immigrants. Which I might remind is what made US great. We (this country) desperately need immigration. US birth rate is 1.08, we need a rate of 2 for population to not decrease. We need an increase in younger people to support our economy. The primary example is Social Security & Medicare it takes “more people pulling the wagon than riding in it”. Without immigration pretty soon many of those programs will collapse. Now don’t you think some of those should be top of their class college graduates and not all just first generation farm workers? I think so!
Think a little longer term and I assure you we are NOT over taxed in SD.
What is the cause of the low birthrate? Part of the problem is fertility. It has been steadily dropping (food, preventative medical treatments, chemicals?). Another part is the wage depression that is making it very hard for families to get by. Probably need to stop the wage depression and address fertility issues.
The ability to have control of birth rate is obviously a major part. However, women being recognized as a capable of careers and important there. When I was growing up average family size was 3 to 5 kids and up to 10 kids we were all aware of. Women going into careers and finding their way found to move up in their careers they could not manage a large family and even if they were the major bread winner husbands did not take over child care. Thus smaller families. Of course cost of raising children and and complications of large families had an affect.
Good points, but we also need to nourish a culture/society of life that encourages increased birthrates because there's hope that our children can do as well or better than we have. There's been too much emphasis on people being the plague on planet earth as well as as well as propaganda against being male or female, along with the corollary that there's considerable flexibility on what being a "man" or "woman" is defined. We are all different yet very much the same.
Higher income South Dakotans aren't overtaxed. Lower income groups might be. We tax groceries, which doesn't bother people like me but burdens young families. The property tax bills currently being considered stick it to young families struggling to buy their first homes but help older people like me who've had a successful career and are comfortably retired.
I agree with all that. However, by comparison even with sales tax on food SD are not over taxed compared to the rest of the civilized world. People in the US have a very high lifestyle expectation compared to rest of the world.
Perhaps the issue is not lifestyle, but that people would like to determine where they place their money, because the government has not been a good steward (graft and poor performance). Take the $1.6 billion/year for public K-12 education in South Dakota and somewhere between 60 and 80% are not at grade level.
Out-of-state students are charged a different rate than in-state students. USD charges approx $9,432 in-state tuition and $12,942 out-of-state tuition. The out-of-state students are more likely to live on campus and contribute to cultural diversity.
Would you be so kind and to share your source? The USD website and person answering the phone confirmed that the international students get a $6500 discount if they have the grades and the test scores. It appears that all the schools in the state offer a substantial discount.
Perhaps one is describing foreigners from other countries and the other US citizens from other US states.
I should have been more clear. The link is to the international student page. I confirmed that the discount is available to international students.
https://www.usd.edu/Admissions-and-Aid/Tuition-and-Costs/Undergraduate-Cost-of-Attendance
The link in the article includes the foreign student information including the scholarships.
The term "professors" isn't in my post. Colleges spend millions on people who coach kids' games. Those people are called "coaches", they're not called professors.
There is a constant complaint about college cost but then nobody questions the enormous wages being paid to 'professors' that cannot be fired. The other problem is government subsidies. Get rid of both over paid 'professors' and subsidies and the price will come down across the board.
How about coaches paid multimillion dollar salaries to coach kids' games?
Most sports programs aren't cash flow positive. Football is sometimes an exception. Has anyone looked at the numbers for the universities in South Dakota?
Never heard of college professors coaching kids games. Please pass on more information on this. I know high school and below get over time or bonus pay for after school sports, but that is a different topic.
Neither have I.
Are you drunk? It was your point.
Coaches coach kids games and some are paid much much more than professors, some are paid millions of dollars annually. Professors educate students. Coaches entertain alumni.
None that I have meet were paid millions. That includes myself growing up, my children and grand children. I think you are drunk again.
Are all the universities under the same overall agency or is each one begging at the legislature independently. When we went to school in Colorado and later lived there, ther was not a universal board for all schools. The Board of Regents administered Colorado University in Boulder, The Board of Agriculture ran Colorado State in Fort Collins as well as Colorado A&M in Fort Morgan. The university in Greely started out as a teacher's college and was run by somebody else. All of them competing at the Legislature's feeding trough and competeing to be the biggest, pretist, and richest.
Anyone know the status of Gov. Noem's budget proposal to cut $10 million from BOR before she resigned as governor?
Not sure. Could someone track that down. It looks like they could cover that cost quickly by reducing the subsidies to foreign students.
With the high cost of higher education and housing and the tax policies that favors higher income and net worth folks, the younger generation is stretched to the limit and those who are fiscally responsible put off childbearing until they can afford it. By the time they can afford it, they're beyond childbearing bearing age and need to secure their retirement.