Time for South Dakota’s public school teachers to get a raise
South Dakota’s public school teachers are some of the lowest paid in the United States. The National Education Association ranking for 2024-2025 puts us at #46 in the country.
Some say that’s ok because our cost-of-living is relatively low and that we need to consider the big picture. It’s a good point, so let’s do some consideration of how living costs stack up in South Dakota compared to the rest of the country.
The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center ranks us 23rd in the country when it comes to cost of living. The World Population Review says we’re 37th. Cost of Living by State.com says we’re number 26.
Turns out we’re not such a cheap place to live, after all, and that our cost-of-living is not relatively low. It’s about average. You can probably find lists in other places, but it seems pretty clear that while our teachers are among the lowest paid in the country, they have to live in a state where living costs are much closer to national medians.
This should be taken as a collective embarrassment. Why aren’t we paying our teachers enough to match up with their costs of living? I’ve been reading about teacher shortages in South Dakota and believe that paying teachers better money will alleviate much of the problem.
Consider another aspect of the situation: quality, where we also come up a little short.
Our state’s public schools don’t rank all that well nationally in terms of overall performance. A commitment to getting more teachers might be a way to start drawing better results from our public school systems. World Population Review ranks South Dakota 36th in overall school performance. Consumer Affairs ranks us 33rd.
A leap to the top tier of those rankings is probably not going to happen in the foreseeable future, but to work our way up to the upper half of those lists seems like a worthy and realistic goal.
Getting to that level makes a locality more attractive to homeowners and businesses. It stands to reason that states with schools that rank high are also states that are looked on favorably when individuals and commercial enterprises consider committing their time and resources to a place.
I hope Governor Rhoden will show some leadership on this and make the improvement of our schools a priority. South Dakota deserves better than a second tier standing when it comes to public education.
State government, along with school districts and their taxpayers should look at the cost of competitive teacher salaries as an investment, not an expense.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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