The vultures are circling and the hyenas have gathered at the site of Governor Daugaard's proposal to lift teachers, students, and education in South Dakota.

The three education bills to change the way we have always done things are now public information. Last week, some House Republicans began searching for other money, alternatives, to improving the status of education by raising the state sales tax by half a penny.  That's code for, "we don't want to do much, yet we don't want to get blamed for doing nothing." And, "Our Governor is betraying his conservative principles. We need to bring him back into our fold."

In this case, our Governor is correct and he is still right. Spending money on education is not an expense. It is an investment. Most conservatives know that investing in infrastructure, ie education and teachers, has a great return. Smarter kids. Smarter graduates. Smarter employees.

For the record, I don't like raising the sales tax. It is regressive. My preference, as previously written, would be to lift education by a tax on business. In our state we are  more likely to see pigs fly than to consider a tax on business revenue. So the sales tax is the easiest road to travel.

I understand the hesitancy to raise taxes. However, if our leaders in Pierre had been doing their job for education the past twenty years or so, we wouldn't experiencing a teacher shortage. We wouldn't be 51st in teacher pay. And, our kid's test scores would not be slipping.

If the "not doing their job" words have a familiar ring, it's because we went through the same process last year with roads and bridges. After years of doing nothing with our roads falling into disrepair, our so called leaders were forced to act.

Same song, second verse.

There is nothing wrong with being conservative. None of us want to waste money. However, the vultures and hyenas, don't seem  interested in investing to improve our education system and teacher pay. They seem to want to and maybe even secretly enjoy saying "no."  There may be some sick desire on their part to keep us down and them on top.

We need to stand up and say "YES" to improving the quality of our children's education. "YES" to improving the profession of molding young minds. "YES" to paying teachers what they are worth to our state.

Our unified and strong voices may scare away the scavengers.


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