AFP-SD Responds to Governor Kristi Noem’s State of the State Address
Pierre, SD – Today, Governor Kristi Noem delivered her 2025 State of State address highlighting the strong business climate of the state as well as signaling strong support for her Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) proposal.
Americans for Prosperity-South Dakota (AFP-SD) State Director Don Haggar made the following statement:
“Today, in likely her last official State of the State address, Governor Noem illustrated how South Dakota’s approach to government has led to a thriving economy with an emphasis on liberty. We are excited to hear her support for ESAs, which would empower every student and family with the opportunity to succeed. AFP-SD is ready to work closely with lawmakers to pass HB 1020, the Education Savings Accounts bill.
“South Dakota is one of the freest states in the nation, and AFP-SD looks forward to working alongside Governor Noem and her presumptive predecessor Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden to advance more freedom-focused policies and reignite the American Dream across the Rushmore State.”
Just in time Wally World has a rollback on aluminum foil Stock up now and save
“predecessor”?
Give ‘em a break, whoever wrote this was probably homeschooled.
Now now, with AFP it could be all that quality private schooling too.
Word on the street is Hansen withdrew Baxter’s HB 1009 without her permission. The home school Bill is dead. Odenbach could care less about homeschoolers. It’s apparent now. The plan is in motion. Noem selected Sleepy Joe Graves because he’s a good Church boy who listens. He pushes the Hillsdale Social Studies curriculum change through the process with Noem’s stacked board. Thankful to the real educators on that board, Willert and Nebelsick, who voted now. Odenbach drops a bill on top of Baxters written heavily with the intent to flow money to the Private Schools. The Private School’s social studies curriculum is close enough to the Department of Ed’s Hillsdale curriculum and Gear-Up Graves will say the Private Schools meet the state standards so student there will qualify for vouchers. Every wealthy white person who sends their kids to one of these Parochial schools get’s a check for $3000. $3000 is not enough for a poor kid from rural SD to make it work to get to a $10000/year Private School in Rapid City, Aberdeen, or Sioux Falls and cover the $7000 difference, so there will be very little competition for the vouchers. Once the vouchers start rolling into these Private Schools, they will start raising their tuition rates accordingly and pricing the poor people out. This added revenue will serve well to fill the church collection plates. It already happened in Iowa. 70 percent of the vouchers went to existing Private School students and the Voucher Budget went bananas. The kicker the way Odenbach drafted the bill, is that once your in, your in and your renewal is automatic. Stevie Wonder could have saw this coming.
Don’t forget, Sleepy Joe also siphoned 600k to pay for private school’s curriculum materials this past year under the radar. No surprise he’s all for green lighting a potential $12 million dollar annual subsidy to the Sioux Falls and Rapid City dioceses with no accountability on the backs of taxpayers.
Odenbach tossed a small bit of government oversight into HB 1020 to chase the home schoolers away so that won’t suck up the voucher money initially so all the Private School existing students will be at the top of the stack. There will be enough of these Private School families living close to the 200 percent poverty mark but just enough to get through the initial voucher money. Next session if this passes, the Poverty limits will expand to 350 percent which will take care of more existing Private School families. It’s literally happened this way in every voucher state. There will be absolutely 0 property tax relief if these vouchers go through. Nebraska, Colorado, and Kentucky just had ballot initiative this year to overturn their State Legislature’s and Governor’s voucher bills and defeated them easily. This might get through the House, but I don’t think it makes it through the Senate. If it does, Rhoden will have to Veto it like Burgum did in North Dakota last session. Rhoden’s neighbors have been battling for years to keep the Hereford Public School and Union Center open. If they find out that their tax dollars are gonna flow to the Private Schools in Rapid and Sioux Falls, he will find himself with no help at his brandings.
Freshman Baxter through a wrench in their plan dropping her bill before session, but they are gonna teach her real quick how things work in Pierre.
They are already teaching her to fall in line. God told them to recruit her and God will tell them, not her, what to do. Her only purpose was to get Hansen and Odenbach elected. No independent thought! How dare she!
Some of these freshmen legislators are going to learn exactly what kind of pawns they are. They took the Liberty Tree PAC money and it comes with the price of obedience. They were supported and championed as “quality” candidates by Odenbach so that they could get elected and get him into leadership. They are not supposed to speak unless the message has been approved. I don’t think anyone has fully grasped how dangerous Scott Odenbach is.
When did AFP hire Ed Randazzo to write its press releases. The fawning is familiar. 💥
Last night a sold out crowd watched 2 teams play basketball in Rapid City. The parking lot was full of shiny Tahoes, Lexus, Teslas, etc. I personally have not seen that many white upper class people in one location since a Richard Marx concert I went to in High School. Both Superintendents spoke at 1/2 time and urged the crowd to support HB 1020 and the 3k vouchers. The Live Stream announcer pushed HB 1020 on the You Tube. With the crowd in the gym, 3k would mean upgrading their family from Economy Plus to First Class on their annual vacation to Cabo. These people will tell you they are Christians and care about all but they deny students who may be mentally handicapped and can’t pass an entrance exam into their exclusive school or can’t afford the $10k tuition or the high cost of the Student Lunches if they even offer it. The kids who the bill is designed to help won’t be coming out of rural SD or the reservations because they won’t be able to afford it even with the 3k voucher. Meanwhile the church collection plates at the churches will fill up, vouchers will continue to suck up our valuable sales tax money at the State Level and Property Tax reduction will be a distant memory. 85 percent of us will be paying to educate the 15 percent of the Wealthy Family’s who attend these schools. Well played RCC and STM, well played. Take a look at most of the sponsors of this bill…..high paid lawyers from Minnehaha, Brown, and Pennington Counties. Pay attention to those who will vote for school vouchers and will vote against Property Tax relief to the people who need it the most.
Who are the high paid lawyers from Brown pushing this bill?
Why would public school superintendents support vouchers that could potentially take students away from public schools? Taxes. You are right about the voucher bill destroying property tax relief. If we slow or reduce property taxes, that reduces money to the schools as approx 65% of property tax goes to the schools. This game is being played at a level that the incoming legislators can’t grasp. That was intentional.
If the Cutler/Gabriel Amendment is still in affect, the actual numbers of funding for South Dakota Public Ed are set at 57 percent coming from State Aid and 43 percent coming from local effort (Property Taxes).