Education Secretary: No K-12 Increase Is Tough
December 11, 2009
South Dakota school districts may have a tough time making ends meet if the current budget proposal makes its way through the legislature. Governor Mike Rounds’ proposed budget does not include any increase for K-12 schools because of the tight budget year.
Those school districts were scheduled to get a 1.2 percent increase under the current funding system, but cutting that increase out saves the state nearly $4 million.
"Would they like to have a 1.2 percent increase? Certainly, everyone would like to have an increase and it’s tough. It’s tough running a K-12 school," South Dakota Secretary of Education Tom Oster said.
Oster says the cost cutting move will be difficult for many districts, but these are also difficult times for the state budget.
"It’s very difficult. I’m sure schools are upset about it, but there are also very intelligent folks out there. They understand the situation the state is in and they realize when you get in a crisis situation like this it’s a lot easier when everyone shares in the pain," Oster said.
The proposal to cut out the annual increase for schools may make next year’s math a little tougher for school districts, but Oster says when you add it up it’s much better than the deep cuts, layoffs and teacher furloughs some states are facing.
"As bad as it might seem we’re in a pretty good situation compared to the rest of the country," Oster said.
Some South Dakota lawmakers have said they would like to cut other areas of state government to give South Dakota school districts their yearly increase. Oster says it’s hard to say whether he’d support those efforts because you don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul, and he thinks South Dakota schools feel the same way.
"I think a lot of them would tell you they don’t want to be the folks who are chastised because they got something that nobody else did, or got it off the backs of somebody else," Oster said.
But Governor Rounds’ budget proposal does still include extra money for small sparse school districts and rapidly growing districts, a program that had faced cuts in the past.