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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - The effort to increase teacher pay in South Dakota began with a briefing today from the Blue Ribbon Education panel to the Joint Appropriations Committee.
State Senator Deb Soholt says the average salary for teachers in North Dakota is $8,500 higher.
Soholt says while the plan seems aggressive, and feels like a big number, South Dakota has been 51st in teacher salaries for a long time. She says the gap of being 51st has widened to a level to where it's going to be difficult to attract and retain teachers.
Soholt says the panel also looked at the relationship between funding per student and the average teacher pay from all fifty states. She says one of the things legislators will ask is that South Dakota would invest in education at 40th and pay at 51st. She says some of that is due to inefficiencies because of school sparsity in South Dakota.
Soholt says legislators will have to address school district reserves because they can be misunderstood. Some school districts have too much in reserves because administrators don't see the state as a good partner because it funnels less money into education each year. And Soholt says there's probably too much going into buildings.
Governor Daugaard is proposing an average teacher salary of $48,500.