This occurred as the SD Legislature continues its annual session. It indicates to the Chief that there is evidence of at least some reason being present this year at the session.

Panel kills plan to raise minimum school size

A bill to make more small schools in South Dakota reorganize is premature, a House committee says.

The House Education Committee voted 12-3 on Wednesday to kill HB1182, a bill that would have required schools with fewer than 195 students to reorganize with other districts. Two years ago legislators passed the current law, which requires reorganization for schools with fewer than 100 students.

The Legislature should see how the current law works before raising the reorganization bar, opponents of the higher minimum size said.

This is a perennial proposal that bubbles up like an unpleasant gas released from the bottom of a slough while duck hunting. It doesn’t help in accomplishing anything, but just gives evidence that something (or someone, in this case) has gotten stirred up.

The given reason for this is of course (genuflect appropriately!) is to save money, which as a general principle is ALWAYS a laudable, if too rare, a thing for any governmental body to contemplate. In this case however, earlier testimony indicated that this would not be the result of this scheme.

State education officials testified earlier that reorganization wouldn’t necessarily save money because the state-aid formula is based on a per-student cost.

So, what’s the point then?

Given that there may be occasional cases of smaller districts being educationally deficient, in most cases this is not a problem, based on testing results. If local communities are willing to support their schools of whatever size, and the school district is able to work our a modus operandi that meets the needs of the students and community, then WHY IN THE HECK ARE SOME LEGISLATORS FROM OTHER COMMUNITIES SO BOUND AND DETERMINED TO IMPOSE THEIR IDEA ON THEIR FELLOW SOUTH DAKOTANS, WHEN THERE IS NO OBVIOUS GAIN IN DOING SO?

Maybe somebody knows, but the Chief sure can’t see the reason in it, so for that reason it is a good thing that H.R. 1138 seems to have met its doom, at least for another year, and community based schools like Rutland, Oldham-Ramona, and others will be able to continue serving the educational (and yes, also social) needs of their areas, just as do the schools of Brookings, Sioux Falls, Tea, Canton, or anywhere else.