Title: South Dakota once again ranks last in teacher pay | Local | rapidcityjournal.com
Headings: South Dakota once again ranks last in teacher pay
South Dakota once again ranks last in teacher pay
How we compare
Rapid City Area Schools
Wall School District
Campbell County School District, Wyo.
Bismarck, N.D., Public Schools

Content: Nebraska is at $48,931, and North Dakota is at $47,344. State officials like the governor’s communications director, Tony Venhuizen, downplay the disparity in pay, citing a business-friendly environment while defending the administration’s commitment to education. "There are a lot of different statistics in education,” Venhuizen said. “ South Dakota is not 50th in what we spend per student, we’re higher than that … and the governor mentioned in the State of the State address that South Dakota has the lowest cost of living. You will find that in a lot of career fields, the salary is lower if you don’t adjust for the fact that we have very low taxes and the lowest cost of living." Earlier this year, Gov. Dennis Daugaard proposed a 3 percent increase in funding for the state’s public schools. While it was widely reported that school officials were grateful the governor didn’t propose less, they also say it doesn’t mean that it is adequate when it was only two years ago he cut the state’s contribution to public education by 10 percent to help balance the budget. Mitchell said only a fraction of the governor’s proposed increase could be directed at teacher pay. “On this issue, they would say the decision should be made on a local level,” he said. “ But we have talked about when the governor gives a 3 percent increase in funding to schools it is for everything.