Next up, Brats and a walk-a-thon… to sue taxpayers.
The Mitchell Daily Republic is reporting today on the… “novel” ways that the backers of the coalition of taxpayer funded schools are using to raise money to sue the taxpayers for more tax money now that Judge Lori Wilbur handed them a defeat as they sought to use taxpayer monies to fund their effort:
Wilbur’s decision has put supporters of the suit in an ironic situation — educators seeking funding to continue a lawsuit about education funding. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 2.
For educators like Linda Whitney, superintendent of the Sanborn Central School District in Forestburg, the decision is a setback. She’s hoping an appeal will lead to a reversal of the ruling and until then, she’ll be doing her best to raise funds for the trial, which begins on Sept. 2.
“We’ve had brat feeds. We’re talking about doing a walk-a-thon,” said Whitney, president of the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, which supports the lawsuit against the state. “We are going to have to continue to raise funds privately.”
Supporters may attempt to raise funds at this week’s State Fair in Huron, Whitney said, and she expects residents to come forward with contributions.
Yeah, I just bet taxpayers are going to line up so schools can sue them and cause their taxes to go up.
Next up, a telethon to raise money to give everyone pink-eye.
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Comments
The unfortunate part is that our Governor and State Legislators can’t follow the state constitution, but of course we are the state that funds state government with groceries and gambling and we keep trying to make abortion and BC illegal even though it is against the US Constitution.
I have tried, and I cant come to “grips” with the characterization of sueing taxpayers. Does every lawsuit against the State mean taxpayers are being sued ? In the original school funding lawsuit, were those parents really sueing the taxpayers or just the Yankton school board ? I think it would be more accurate to say that the administrators (lawmakers) of these monies are the ones being sued. In my mind, saying taxpayers are being sued for education funds is like being in an auto accident and sueing the car that was in the wrong instead of the driver. I believe the driver (lawmakers) can and should be held accountable for their actions while driving our money (taxes) around, just my 2 cents,,,
But we voted for these people and continue to do so. It’s a representative form of government. If the people disagreed with what they were doing, they have repeated opportunities to not vote for them, this viewed problem didnt happen over night. The taxpayers must be ok with this thus they are suing themselves. It’s up to the boards to raise money outside of the government or have a different plantiff, like a group of students that are being wronged and then prove it. It’s tough with test scores and national test scores as high as they are. I think your just wrong wing-nut. It’s just supply and demand economics at work regarding the wages for teachers.
This isn’t about a funding decision by our elected officials, It’s about upholding SD’s Constitution. It clearly states they must fund education, yet year after year they don’t properly fund it. They either need to, change the state constitution or be held accountable in court. This is pretty black and white, Hell, I don’t even have children and I’m defending this lawsuit.
The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education
Detroit,
You need to read our state’s constitution my friend:
§ 1. Uniform system of free public schools. The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.
You tell me where it says it must fund it according to any benchmark. The fact that SD kids continually rank in the top ten for test scores tells me that they are getting a great education so don’t tell me they aren’t.
Here is what the constituition say
§ 1. Uniform system of free public schools. The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education
The word is “uniform” not “adequate”. If the legislatue is forced to create a uniform system, the solution is consolidation. It is impossible to be uniform when one school has 1000 students per grade and another has 10 students per grade. So the forced solution could be to close half the schools. If this what the people suing want?
I also notice the word “education” in that paragraph beginning with “Uniform system of free public schools…. and ending with …education.” I am willing to bet that the drafters of this rule did not anticipate “education” to include social workers, nurses, coaches, gyms, athletic directors, athletic trainers, gas to get kids to sports activities across the state. I think they meant “education” to mean academics. And if that were the case, schools would have plenty of money available.
Detroit-
That is your opinion which everybody has. But what argument do you have when we continue to rank at the levels we do. Your “feelings” may bring you to your opinion but the facts say something completely different. I have 2 kids in school and have graduated from this same system. Im sure now your going to statrt the name calling and that I hate kids.
Be honest, DL. You loose all your credibility when you claim “the Governor and Legislature can’t follow the Constitution.”
You mean, they don’t adequately fund education to the level at which you want it funded. Which is precisely what lawsuit is, isn’t it?
The REAL motivation, as evidenced by your rants about “groceries and lottery” is that YOU want a state income tax.
Fess up, be honest about it, and then we can all have the discussion. This is _ALL_ about taxes.
DL
You never met a looney liberal idea that you didn’t love.
More taxes, more government, more social programs.
Springer has it right! Basic education.
Maybe we should consider neighborhood schools of no more than 25 students of mixed grades. Each administrator can teach a school along with their other duties since their experience should allow them to do more in less time. Novice teachers could have fewer students. The students in the upper grade could help those in the lower grades and anyone over 14 years who doesn’t participate and work hard could be sent to John Morrels or Peska construction or a company that pours concrete to work full time for a month. When the blisters heal so they can hold a pencil again then then could have one more go at school.
We need the next generation to understand the value of an education!
No offense to anyone who works construction, pours concrete, or works at Morrels. We all know that you WORK HARD for your dollars and the school administrations should waste it.
You guys crack me up. Boy, you tricked me, I will confess, I am for a state income tax, but only if we eliminate basic retail taxes and video lottery (I am for keeping an entertainment tax). An income tax is the only fair tax, ironically most South Dakotans would pay less in taxes if this system was implemented and the rich would finally pay their fair share.
As for education funding, I think the word ‘uniform’ says it all, all districts are asking is that they get a fair amount of money from the state for each student, not consolidation. This is about academics and students not teacher pay and administration. I think when you can brush off losing $600,000 million in state investments by giving the clerk a bonus, we can fund education properly.
detroit, isn’t 600k about the same amount these schools have wasted so far on the lawsuit?
truth is that education is not underfunded, and our kids are performing well. we spend around 7k per year per each student. if you don’t think we can properly utilize 7k to teach a single child, then i don’t know why 8k would do the trick.
i say let me keep the 7k and decide how and where to teach my kids. i’ll even pay for extracurricular activities on my own. and i bet you that i’d have money left over for college.
It is 600 million not 600 thousand.
BTW, where did you get the $7,000 a year number? Each district is different. Backup your sources.
600 mil. my bad. still can’t believe that one … re: the bonus for the investor.
as for the 7k number, it’s actually $7,114. at least it was last year. likely higher this year. the number, cost-per-ADM, comes straight from the south dakota department of education. ya dig?
http://doe.sd.gov/ofm/statdigest/07digest/Docs/State_ProfileFY07.pdf
and that’s an average of all the school districts. some of the worse-performing districts spend much more. and some of the better-performing districts spend much less. go figure.
Yikes…when I read the headline, I thought you meant Brats as in Rugrats…
Anyway, I don’t care how they raise money, as long as they aren’t spending mine on this ridiculous lawsuit.