Opinion: It’s refreshing to see real proposals from frontrunner

The current gubernatorial race in South Dakota seems to be shaping up into a real yawner.

With Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard 30-plus points ahead of his opponent, Scott Heidepriem, in the polls, the campaign becomes pretty predictable. The candidate far behind throws out increasingly acerbic criticisms of the frontrunner while the frontrunner ignores his antagonist and says as little as possible, since it is politically unwise to shake things up when you are coasting to what appears to be a stunning victory.

Thus, when the lieutenant governor came out with his education plan last Wednesday, I knew precisely what to expect: a bland, vague statement about his general support for education with nothing that could possibly evoke any controversy. No point in upsetting the ballot box before the votes have even been cast. Besides, concrete proposals for legislative changes can always come, safely, on Nov. 3.

Except that’s not quite what happened. Sure, there were points that are essentially impossible to disagree with: “strong foundation in science and mathematics,” “strengthen our writing curriculum,” “Help students make informed choices about their education.” This is not exactly political risk-taking.

But all that is under the first section of the plan, titled “Preparing Our Children for the Future.” The second part, “Let Local Decision-Makers Run their Schools,” however, suddenly and surprisingly offers some raw meat.

Here’s one: “Give schools flexibility to respond to market forces in hiring teachers.” If that sounds like a “duh” moment, in K-12 education, well maybe it should be, but it isn’t.

Traditionally, schools pay teachers off a salary schedule which adjusts pay for only two factors, years in the district and educational attainment. Every teacher of similar experience and education in the same school district is paid the same, regardless of what they teach. Even ignoring the obvious inequity that is created by such a situation given the fact that some teachers are better than others, this equivalence creates a problem in recruiting teachers in hard-to-find areas. Looking for an instructor in instrumental music, upper-level math, physics, or speech therapy? Good luck. For whatever reason, fewer people go into these fields than other teaching areas and schools lack the one basic economic tool for increasing that supply, paying such teachers more. The result is teacher shortages and the solution is marketbased pay which is what candidate Daugaard is proposing.

Continuing on in the document brings the reader to section three, “A Commitment to Funding Education.” Under this title is included what sounds like a pretty banal proposal: “Close scrutiny of capital outlay needs.” But the problem addressed is anything but boring. It is the fact that there are a number of school districts, largely in very sparsely populated areas, in South Dakota which lack the tax base to build decent school facilities. In these schools, students go to school in trailer houses, not while construction is going on or due to some unforeseen building crisis like a fire, but on a permanent basis. The trailer house is their school.

The proposal doesn’t offer a solution to this problem and, truthfully, I can think of solutions I would like and some I wouldn’t, but the problem is of such magnitude for those students that some solution truly must be found. While schools sue the state in an ill-advised and legally fishy attempt to squeeze more money out of the turnip that is the state budget, the real issue of inequity, the inability of some districts to build decent schools for kids to be educated in has heretofore gone unresolved.

The point of all this is not necessarily that I agree with these two substantive proposals. It is the fact that they have been made at all in this campaign. The safe bet when you’re this far ahead in the polls is to just lay low and not offer concrete ideas because doing so just gives your opponent that many more targets.

So why offer them now? Frankly, I’m not sure. But it sure is refreshing.

Tags: joe graves, opinion