Optimism is on the horizon for the prospect of raising teacher salaries in South Dakota. How soon we get to the destination is yet to be determined.

Governor Dennis Daugaard developed the Blue Ribbon Task Force to address concerns about the teaching profession. Rob Monson of the School Administrators of South Dakota has been at all of the Task Force gatherings and seems hopeful that action will follow the talk.

“We’ve been making a racket for the last couple years that school districts are having trouble finding teachers in general and more so quality teachers,” says Monson. We are seeing some progression and I truly believe that something is going to come out of this.”

Compensation ranks highest on the list of concerns of being able to recruit new teachers into the profession. Monson estimates that it would take about $100 million to bring salaries in line with regional standards. “To get to that amount you have to cut someone else to provide more to K-12 education or you’re going to have to grow the pie. I think that (the Task Force) is starting to realize that there needs to be some new revenues if were going to get anywhere close to making up that difference.”

Additionally Monson believes there are other hurdles to overcome in bringing new educators into the fold. “The respect of educators has waned (over the) years and that’s from the federal level on down into the communities. Also, teachers are expected to do so much and performance-based evaluations make teaching an undoable job at times.”

October 1 in Pierre at the Capitol Visiting Center will be the next gathering for the panel. Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 29.

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