School vouchers to come back from the dead already? 2 placeholder bills on deck.

Interestingly, the same day that both bills to dump taxpayer dollars into private schools were killed in committee, the following two pieces of legislation were introduced:

HB 1134
make an appropriation benefitting South Dakota.
HB 1135
provide opportunities for South Dakotans.

Does that language seem a little vague? Well, that’s because there is none. These are placeholder bills which serve no purpose but to be amended.  I suspect we will see them come back from the dead.

I expect it will be coming back from the dead a little less like Jesus did in eternal glory, but more akin to Frankenstein’s monster, patched together from parts that weren’t necessarily so fresh.

20 thoughts on “School vouchers to come back from the dead already? 2 placeholder bills on deck.”

  1. Where do you get the false information about dumping taxpayers dollars into private schools? You must have read the garbage hype from the teachers union propaganda concerning vouchers. Maybe you should be answering the reasons our public schools have a diminished accountability for education. The trail of the money in the traditional public school system is unaccountable especially when I get a property tax increase of 43% over the previous year which the majority of it going to the school district. If I don’t have choice about the excessive taxation, I will have a choice where my student will be educated by the voucher system.

    1. Which school district do you belong to? I find your claims difficult to believe. Have you attended school board members? Visited with school board members? How about arrange to visit with the school district business manager? What I have experienced after being a regular attendee of school board meetings is that they strive for excellence and go out of their way to be accessible and transparent. Same with the business manager.

      Unfortunately what has happened is that the few not all who trash public schools go off of rumors, social media special interest groups like Moms for Liberty or some lazy candidate for office/legislator that makes things up verses doing the hard work. The tragedy is that well meaning parents fall for it and never take the time to substantiate the disparaging claims. Once they do they often find the truth and become invested themselves in “Their” school district which results in good outcomes and improvements for everyone!

      Btw! I am a private school graduate that donated to the private school to help with scholarships and operating costs(Private money for private schools/Public money for public schools) At the same time I volunteered for our public school ballot initiative to improve the school which in the long run saved taxpayers money and increased security.

    2. When a bills purpose is to give taxpayer dollars to people specifically for private school tuition, that is dumping taxpayer money into private schools.

  2. Didn’t Odenbach throw a fit over HB1140 last year because it was brought with a placeholder bill? Just like these two? Seems like a “rules for them but not for me” situation.

  3. Those bills get introduced every year. It is always the Majority Leaders in each house that introduce placeholders to be prepared for whatever might come together after bill intro deadlines. A lot of years they killed/pulled because they’re not needed, but this has become standard practice. That’s not to say these won’t be used for school choice bills, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions…

      1. Exactly the reason why we should have no problem paying for the kids who are struggling. There are numerous skin and bone kids and plenty of parents and peers that could donate a hamburger. Why is this even an argument? Most everyone if approached by a hungry child would gladly take the dollars out of their pocket to feed the kid. When we aren’t the one allowed to make the judgement or are able to sit behind a screen and say no, that somehow changes? Can we just feed the darn kids already and find another way to bully crappy parents instead of using their child’s hunger?

            1. school lunches are free or at reduced cost for families who qualify. As I recall, the forms were in my kids’ backpacks every year, the first week of school.
              Maybe the parents who don’t know about this should look
              in their kids’ backpacks, or ask the kid “what did you do with that application form for free lunches?”

              1. Bold and out of touch of you to assume that all parents care about their kids. WWJD, more arbitrary forms, or just give kids at least one good meal a day, regardless of what circumstances they were born into?

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