Are you catching that Toby Doeden’s policy proposals are just a series of slogans, and little else?
Toby Doeden took to Twitter in response to a South Dakotan asking what he was going to do about school closures. And we got a glimpse of what Doeden’s policy proposals on education are. Except.. they aren’t really actual proposals.
It’s just a series of slogans he’s throwing out which make less and less sense when placed against a framework of South Dakota’s laws, the system of how we fund education, and well, plain old reality:
Doeden wants to “defund the system,” yet somehow “pay teachers their worth?” How exactly does he intend to pay teachers at all if the system is “defunded?” South Dakota’s educational funding system is not exactly something you can easily pin down. Cheating somewhat, and using Google’s AI to help put our arms around it, this provides a relatively broad outline of what “the system” is that Doeden is telling voters he wants to defund:
South Dakota’s K-12 education system is primarily funded through a combination of state, local, and federal sources, with state aid playing a significant role. The state utilizes a resource-based funding formula, which calculates the cost of education based on the resources needed, such as staff, materials, and programs.
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- South Dakota’s state aid formula considers factors like the number of students, their learning needs (English language learners, students with disabilities, etc.), and the cost of resources.
- Districts are expected to contribute a local share, with the amount based on property values and other local taxes.
- The state also provides additional funding for specific needs, such as sparsity funding for sparsely populated districts.
- South Dakota’s state aid formula considers factors like the number of students, their learning needs (English language learners, students with disabilities, etc.), and the cost of resources.
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- The federal government contributes a substantial portion of education funding, with about 21.7% of total funding coming from federal sources in the 2021-22 school year, according to the US Department of Education.
- This funding includes programs like Title I for low-income students and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for special education.
- Other federal programs, like school lunch and Head Start, are funded through different agencies like the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.
- The federal government contributes a substantial portion of education funding, with about 21.7% of total funding coming from federal sources in the 2021-22 school year, according to the US Department of Education.
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- Local funding, primarily from property taxes, provides a significant portion of school revenue.
- Districts are generally permitted to collect revenue for capital outlay and bond redemption, separate from the per-student allocation.
- Local funding, primarily from property taxes, provides a significant portion of school revenue.
This is not exactly a system you’re going to start tearing things out from . So, where does Toby plan to start hacking? And don’t forget the demands of the South Dakota Constitution; Article 8 section 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.
How exactly does Toby plan to “defund the system” in light of the Constitution plainly demanding that “the Legislature.. establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools.” School funding has been quibbled over and tweaked over the course of 125 years after this was drawn up, yet Doeden claims he can somehow “defund the system?”
But it’s not just his ridiculous slogan barfing on education – it seems that literally every proposal he tosses out there has no real thought or intelligence behind it, as opposed to being complete pablum for people who don’t get into details. When pressed, I’ve heard him say that he wants to run things like a CEO and people under him will figure it out, or something evasive to that effect.
I don’t recall that Governor Bill Janklow ever told voters that the people under him would figure it out, do you? When Governor Mike Rounds had a plan to enable Homestake to be turned into a world class research facility – he knew exactly how they could solve the liability problems that plagued earlier efforts. Dennis Daugaard had a command of finance that helped him understand that we needed to keep South Dakota’s bond ratings high to help weather the recession he was facing.
The point being, in none of these instances did you ever get the impression that they were throwing out platitudes and just didn’t have a clue what they were talking about? Yet in almost every instance of what we’re getting from Toby, once you start drilling down, his slogans fall apart like being at the dentist with a rotted tooth where the shiny gold part was the only thing holding it together.
It’s literally a campaign of hucksterism, even moreso than we typically get from those running for office. It’s all randomly generated slogans and no policy. You have to ask yourself – who is advising him on education or anything? Rep’s Manhart & Schaefbaur, and Sen. Carl Perry? Or Better yet, Senator “California” Carley?
Because if that’s who he’s got, he’d be better off taking everything they tell him – and casting this utter void of intelligent thought away. Because not having any idea of what he’s talking about is going to kill his campaign quicker than anything, no matter what he spends.