Teacher shortage, blah, blah blah. Lets Get a Panel

Stop if you have heard this one before:  There is a significant teacher shortage in South Dakota happening and pay is a significant factor behind it.  

Sioux Falls held his teacher job fair and discovered that other states are more than willing to come into South Dakota and offer higher salaries for teachers.  KSFY relayed the feelings of upcoming teachers in a recent report, 

With an increasing need for teachers, South Dakota school districts also may need to impress these jobseekers with higher pay. 

"Going into teaching, you're always told, you're not going into the profession for money, it's true, but also at the same time, you're working so hard and you're putting in so many extra hours that no one even knows about, we do deserve the pay," Fairbanks said.

Imagine that!  It seems that more and more people going into the teaching field understand the importance of pay as it relates to the real value that our legislature is willing to assign to those in the education field.  Steve Binkley, a third year teacher at Brookings High School was quoted on a recent report by KDLT.

"What they pay us is a reflection on how they value us. And, if they want to send the young people the message that education is not valued, the entire state will feel the repercussions," explained Brookings High School teacher Steve Binkley. This is his third year teaching. 

Teachers say one of those repercussions is teachers moving out of South Dakota to teach in other states where there's better pay and benefits. While teaching is a passion, future teachers with signs reading "fair pay for teachers" and "degree is not debt," say money has become a priority. A priority that students, teachers and professors, hope will grab the attention of South Dakota law makers.

It seems obvious to nearly everyone, including a bi-partisan panel that meet LAST YEAR!  Studies have not just been done by our legislature.  Half of the students coming out of college this year in the education field will be looking out of state:

Of the 503 university students working toward teaching degrees, half of them will leave South Dakota after graduation, long-term tracking numbers show. 

Teachers can make between $8,000 to $15,000 more by moving to North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska or Wyoming.

We elect people to deal with the tough issues and not stand around talking about things that impact no one and watch as the ship sinks.  Governor Daugaard, you might consider yourself a captain of the state's ship, but if you are headed towards iceberg, you don't stand around holding a panel about it, you figure a way around the iceberg to survive.