Governor Receives Blue Ribbon Task Force Report (Read it here).

32 thoughts on “Governor Receives Blue Ribbon Task Force Report (Read it here).”

1. More contrived liberal BS from a Governor who pledged not to raise taxes, because his mom and dad taught him frugality. Lie, lie, lie!

   1. What lie? This is the report given to the Governor. He can accept it, reject it, modify it, whatever. Now we have, what he has.

      There are some good points, like

      Cost saving measures of increasing efficiencies, cutting non-essentials, relying on more technology, sharing services, and partnering with the business community is imperative.

      There is a recommendation to raise taxes. I fear that is where the bulk of the attention is going to be focused. They only discuss sharing services with other schools. Is it possible to share services with other govenment entities?

      1. For crying out loud, the Governor appointed his own son-in-law to the committee. It should be obvious to you that he got the outcome he wanted, and it wasn’t the frugal one he said his parents taught him.

      2. I am intrigued by the chief of staff’s uh hum….authority on the matter. Dang sure sounds governorish.

2. Just read one time & will study closely over the next few days . First reaction is not good . Two points jump out at me right away . Their are no reforms or cut backs enumerated that the education community initiated & no vehicle identified to insure that additional revenue will go to teacher pay vs. just to the districts who have a terrible track record of taking care of the teachers . SOS “just give us the money & trust us” sorry not going to happen .

   1. You’ll do what you are told. Critical thinking is not your strong suit.

   2. Rep V. Two points: First, would there ever be an education bill to make our education teaching force more competitive that you would support? Second, isn’t one of your duties to introduce legislation to fix problems? If you don’t like the task force report, why don’t you introduce your own bill to fix our state’s education problems? Stop complaining. Be a leader. Use the power granted to you by the good people of South Dakota.

   3. Your English language skills are shameful. ‘Their are no …’ = There are no… One cannot ‘insure’ additional revenue. Insurance companies do not insure additional revenue. However, one can ENSURE additional revenue will go to teacher pay etc.

      1. Anonymous 7:43, you don’t have to be smart to be a legislator. But your point about Verchio’s lack of basic grammatical skills begs the question: is there a correlation between a legislator’s anti-education votes and poor academic skills? Do legislators that did poorly in school vote against education more often than those that did well in school? Is there a relationship between a legislator’s perceived value of education and his or hers GPA as a student?

         1. –But your point about Verchio’s lack of basic grammatical skills begs the question: is there a correlation between a legislator’s anti-education votes and poor academic skills?

            Is there a correlation between not understanding the phrase “begs the question” and performing poorly in school in spite of being “thoughtful”?

   4. Rep Verchio,
      Weren’t you the one who successfully added a gas tax last year with a “give us the money and trust us” message? What oversights are involved in the gas tax collection? Hopefully better than the GearUP oversight that our Governor clearly sees no problem with.

3. I am disappointed the BluRT-F did not mention the need to focus more money to the top end of the 7 Indisputable Levels of teachers. We need to be paying the very, very good teachers the most and not spending more money on the bad teachers.

4. There is no way we can’t spend money on bad teachers as long as we have teacher tenure that protects bad teachers from being fired. The only thing the Blue Ribbon Task Force wants to do is throw more money at the problem instead of cutting spending on unnecessary programs and incompetent teachers.

   1. What is a good teacher and who are bad teachers?

      That decision should be left to the school boards, not the state legislature.

   2. Funny thing, Ree. South Dakota does not have teacher tenure, we have continuing contract. You keep spouting bologna that you know nothing about, though. Keep going, you’re doing great.

      1. Would you please explain the difference between teacher tenure and continuing contract? Both make it almost impossible to get rid of a bad teacher unless they have been convicted of a crime. Drop continuing contract and let the local school boards decide which teachers need to be replaced.

5. No free lunch here. Reforms for money will mean the schools will do what the state tells them. It will be interesting to see where the schools line up on this considering how much Pierre will be dictating how much and where money is spent.

6. “I personally don’t care, my favorite (tax) is whatever one the legislators will pass,” Venhuizen said.

   I am confused on so many fronts.

   1. Nepotism is the ugly cousin of cronyism. It breeds the same level of competence.

7. C’mon Anonymous 7:43 and Thoughtful in SD. That is a shot at Representative Verchio that is unfair and appears to be done with the intent to discredit his thoughts without regard to their merits.

   First, spell check, fat fingers, and use of phones/Ipads lead to a great deal of bad grammar. Second, one shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house.

   1) Ensure and insure are interchangeable when the meaning is warrant or assure. The concept is synonym- two words have the same or nearly the same meaning. To assert that “insure” only applies to the insurance industry shows poor understanding of the meaning of words and etymology.

   “Do legislators that did poorly in school vote against education more often than those that did well in school?” Proper grammar would be “those who did” and not “that.”

   “Is there a relationship between a legislator’s perceived value of education and his or hers GPA as a student?” Proper grammar would be “her’s”.

   1. –Proper grammar would be “her’s”.

      No, proper grammar would be “her”.

      An scolding expose’ on grammar should probably be grammatical?

      1. * A scolding….

         1. You missed the irony.

            ahh…

      2. Touche’

         Yes, “her” is a possessive term. The ‘s is redundant.

         Which leads to a question. Is redundancy a grammar error or is it just bad writing? 🙂

         1. No, the ” ‘s” is not “redundant”—it’s ungrammatical.

            There is no “her’s”– only her or hers (as in the idiomatic, “his or hers”).

            “Her’s” cannot be “redundant “since it does not exist.

            Redundancy is not a grammar question, it’s a usage issue.

   2. Oh look, it’s Lord Contradictory Calvin, here to ensure we remember how important he is. Representative Verchio’s thoughts have merits? That’s an adorable compliment from his Lordship Jones. And your copy and paste skills from dictionary.com to explain how insure and ensure are interchangeable are marvelous but demonstrates your own poor understanding on proper usage.

      Remember to ensure your vehicle is always insured. And drink an Ensure daily so your old bones do not break.

8. My HS “advanced” algebra teacher was the highest paid teacher in our little school. He also read the paper or slept through every class. More money would not have made him awake from his slumber.

   Now, if my HS teacher got off his arse and started teaching and producing a better product, that is a different story. But, that is not what this is about.

   This income redistribution plan looks like a foregone conclusion. I hope the legislators are paying attention.

   1. By all means, lump every teacher in with your lazy high school algebra teacher. I’m sure they’re all the same. Good plan, bro.

9. The most hilarious part of all this – and there is plenty of hilarity surrounding the Republican free rider problem in education – is that the retailers association wants to have their property taxes offset by an increase in sales tax that they pass on to and collect from consumers.

   What?

   The peak of hilarity. Republicans are so fun to observe in their natural habitat.

   1. Its rather unseemly to dehumanize any group. (“natural habitat”).

      Whatever lame point you wanted to make is lost in the hate.

   2. Everything’s negotiable until the Governor signs something. Stakeholders mapping out good starting positions shouldnt’ shock anyone.

10. I’m not opposed to raising taxes, if that is what is needed.

    Before we go raising taxes, I would like some reforms. One of the items mentioned was caps on reserve funds.
    Text books are expensive (just ask any college student) Can we make the switch to downloadable electronic text books? maybe from central state server, they can be easily updated every year, without having to buy new books every three to five years.

    We can also make better, more effecient use of distance learning, or computer based classes. Those classes can be shared statewide.

    Can we also partner school with county and state resources for things like building and grounds.

    Maybe we can get the prison system to grow food for school lunches.

    Then we can get local businesses to sponser various classes, as well as sports teams.

    None of these things will raise teacher pay up to the 48,000/yr. It is a start. It would make the tax increase sting a little less painful.

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