Teacher Pay In South Dakota

The Argus editorializes in favor of higher teacher pay:

This is how far behind we've fallen: There is no realistic raise in the amount of money spent on K-12 education that this year would vault South Dakota out of its long-held last-place national ranking in teacher pay.

We are so far behind - 10 percent behind 50th-ranked North Dakota - that catching up in one swoop would break us.

Gov. Mike Rounds proposal - increase the amount of money sent to school districts by 2.5 percent more than last year - at best maintains the status quo. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties are planning counterproposals to raise that number to 4.5 percent.

That latter figure is the minimum amount the Legislature should authorize.

To add clarity, the Argus should demand that any extra increase in educations spending go to teachers, not to administration or overhead. 

I have been a consistent advocate on this blog of higher teacher pay.  South Dakota teacher pay should be competitive, if not necessarily equitable, with our surrounding states. It currently is not.  But the people of South Dakota should not allow themselves to be distracted by this issue, however important it may be. Educational performance has much more to do with what is being taught and how it is taught than the salary of the person in front of the room.  One also cannot stress too much the importance of the first teachers, parents, who do that work for free.  Parents with an active roll in their child's education are more important than teacher salary.