The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Education wrapped up its official work with some general recommendations and a promise of a written report to the Governor. The Task Force had been meeting since early summer to find solutions to teacher pay and retention. The final meeting was Thursday in Pierre. The group settled on a target of forty eight thousand dollars as average teacher pay. Senator Billie Sutton of Burke says they should agree what the minimum funding level should be to get there…
Task Force Co-Chair Senator Deb Soholt of Sioux Falls says she didn’t want to be tied to one funding source for the additional money…
Tony Venhuizen Chief of Staff to Governor Daugaard says they should look at existing dollars first…
The other Task Force Co-Chair, Representative Jacqueline Sly of Rapid City says their meetings may be done, but…
The consensus of the group was that expansion of sales and use tax could be a source of money for the raises. Many also wanted that coupled with more property tax relief.