Potpourri of education activities
makes South Dakota an interesting place to live
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: Webster's definition of
"potpourri" says it is a combination of various incongruous elements
or a miscellaneous collection. The South Dakota education system is
all of that and then some. Today's column is a potpourri of some
those things that is happening on the education stage in our state.
ONE OF THE MANY facets of
education in South Dakota always seems to grab the headlines. One of
the latest is the S.D. Board of Regents proposing a project to build
and upgrade the science and engineering facilities at our public
universities with a price tag of more than $117 million. The
project, according to one university official, will change the
culture of the public university system.
There is no question that this building
program is an ambitious one and while I believe it is a worthy
project, there are a lot of hoops to jump through before any of this
becomes reality. For example, the proposed budget for this project
is a major hoop. It calls for $74.5 million in state funds through a
bonding program and another $42.8 million would be raised through
federal and private sources.
THE DECISION TO say this is a
worthy project came from reading a news story a while back
describing some of the universities' present science facilities. It
was claimed some of them were in worse condition than even some of
our high schools' facilities.
Will this mean a hit on us taxpayers? Of
course, but here it gets a little complicated. Regents head Tad
Perry said the proposal is that the S.D. Building Authority will
issue the bonds for the state's share (the $74.5 million). This
means the Legislature would appropriate the money to pay off the
bonds. This would have to come from the general fund or other means
of cash in the state coffers. That is, in my opinion, another major
hoop.
ANOTHER RHUBARB in the making has
South Dakota's Attorney General Larry Long hiring a firm from St.
Louis, Mo., to help him defend the school aid formula. You may
recall a group of schools filed a law suit against the state arguing
our public schools are not getting appropriate financing from the
state. The lawsuit, itself, is contentious enough, and adding to
that contention of hiring a law firm from outside the state takes
the cake, some observe.
Long's contention is that this law firm
has had previous experience in dealing with experts supporting the
opposition and it has also assisted other states in cases relating
to proper public funding. Long has the authority to so, but, more
than likely he could be judged by the public on this one.
ANOTHER HEADLINE that caught my
attention was, "Small high schools hold key to the future." The
column by Capitol Correspondent Bob Mercer presents a case that
almost could be called "bizarre."
As most of us realize there is a move to
close down our really small schools in the state and force
consolidation on them. But what Mercer is saying is keeping the
small high schools open. He says it's a "return on investment."
His logic was many of the graduates from
our larger high schools don't enroll at our six state universities.
Meanwhile, many of the highest achieving freshmen at those six
universities come from small high schools. He claims these two
trends show up year after year in enrollment data collected by the
Board of Regents.
If that is true Mercer may have a cat by
the tail considering everything that has been to do just the
opposite of what the research says. However, it is doubtful such
research will change what has been happening in education in South
Dakota in the past several years. Why am I not surprised.
I MUST SAY I was amused reading
about the student body president at the University of South Dakota
being impeached. For what, I donšt know. The complaint was filed by
an university official, which is most unusual. The news story
claimed the student from Omaha abused a state vehicle on a trip to
Brookings and something about the misuse of Student Government
Association's funds. Sounds like student politics hasn't changed
much since I was a student, but I was never too involved in student
politics.
YEP, FROM THE STORIES above, it
must be true that education circles go round and round, but maybe
that's what it is supposed to do. What else could one conclude?....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
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