Week 4 Legislative Report by Rep. Tim Reisch

Week 4 Legislative Report
by Rep. Tim Reisch

Things are getting interesting in Pierre, and not in a good way. In last week’s column I wrote about members of the House Education Committee having to fight off attempts to force South Dakota taxpayers to begin paying for kids to attend private schools. Well, it’s starting to feel like the “lets pick on public education” session of the SD Legislature. Here are a few examples:

Senate Bill 51 is a measure brought by freshman Senator John Carley of Piedmont, and Representative Phil Jensen of Rapid (and others) that would require a copy of the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom of every public school in the state. The bill made it across the Senate floor on a 18-17 vote and advanced through the House Education Committee 8-7. School board members and school administrators who have contacted me regarding this bill unanimously oppose it and I plan to vote against it when it gets to the House floor on Monday.

House Bill 1054 was a bill brought by Representative Al Novstrup of Aberdeen and Senator John Carley of Piedmont that would have required school boards to write policies on how they would utilize chaplains (either paid or volunteers) in their school districts. Again, school boards don’t want or need the state legislature telling them what programs they should be implementing. Fortunately, the bill was killed on the House floor 49-18.

In my opinion, the most outrageous bill introduced thus far was House Bill 1224 brought by Representative Phil Jensen. It would have curtailed all state funding to the Huron School District. It was reported that Jensen was targeting the school district for a policy decision regarding rest room usage. Fortunately for everyone involved, Representative Jensen withdrew the bill hours after he had introduced it.

One of the annual highlights of the legislative session, the National Guard Dining Out, was conducted on Thursday night. Many of the legislators’ spouses make the trip to Pierre to be a part of the formal military dinner. A good time was had by all. Many members of the National Guard in attendance were pleased that Senate Bill 82 had been killed earlier in the week. It was a bill brought by Senator Tom Pischke and Representative Aaron Aylward that would have prevented the South Dakota National Guard from being deployed unless war is formally declared. The problems associated with this measure are too numerous to mention here.

I enjoyed meeting with Madison Mayor Roy Lindsay, Madison School Superintendent Joel Jorgenson, Madison Public Library personnel and others during the week. If you want to get in touch with me during the session, my legislative email address is [email protected].