Lawmakers have passed a two percent increase in education funding for South Dakota schools. State law requires an increase in school funding of at least 1.5% this year. Although the proposal goes above and beyond what is required many say the extra funding comes at a cost to local property taxpayers.
The extra half percent increase comes from a change in the way education is funded. Right now sparsity payments for small schools, improvements for school technology and school assessment costs are usually paid in one lump sum to schools by the State each year. This lump sum comes from general funds and is separate from the per student allocation or school funding formula. To get the extra half percent Senate Bill 53 rolls these three payments into the school funding formula.
Representative Lance Russel says this means property tax payers will pay a larger portion of school funding. He says it’s disappointing that local tax payers have to pick up the state’s tab especially since lawmakers never fully restored education funding after cuts made 5 years ago.
"We have squandered away 300-million dollars in the last 5 years in ongoing revenue for all of these additional programs when our main responsibility, our constitutional responsibility is to fund education," says Russel.
Representative Justin Cronin says he understands the frustration of opponents. However, Cronin says not passing this proposal puts sparsity payments and school funding in jeopardy.
"This is an avenue we have to get the schools to 2%. It was rolled out very early in the session. It was part of our budgeting process. We assumed that it was going to stay this way. We made our decisions now we come down to the end. It’s not just that we have to come up with the funding the 1.25 million dollars to fund the increase to 2% education but we would have to find some way to continue to fund sparsity and the assessments," says Cronin.
Cronin says even with Senate Bill 53 passing the state will still pay over 50% of funding for South Dakota schools.