This year state lawmakers gave South Dakota teachers a pay raise. Part of the goal is to attract and retain top young teachers. Many of those aspiring teachers gathered for an SDEA conference in Vermillion recently.
What does the increase in teacher pay mean for South Dakota college students who are studying education? Here are answers from three of them.
“I think it’s good, teachers deserve to get paid more," says Callie Jarmen.
“I really hope it will increase South Dakota’s teachers that want to come here and teachers that come here for education want to stay in South Dakota,” says Rachael Vinzant.
“I would still say more needs to be done. I mean if there’s a $5,000 plus difference then people generally wanna stay where they can earn the money,” says Blake Mobaucen.
Callie Jarmen, Rachael Vinzant and Blake Mobaucen are all education majors at the University of South Dakota.
Some students at the SDEA conference say they plan to stay in the state while others want to move away for various reasons. Vinzant and Mobaucen say they would stay, but Jarmen plans on teaching elsewhere at least for a while.
“Where do you want to go?”
Jarmen says, “I’m not sure, I think that I kinda wanna move somewhere warm for a little bit and then I’ll probably come back here.”
Some State Lawmakers say the effort to make teacher pay more competitive isn't over. They say the issue is like to see more debate in coming years.