School Starts Again Soon – and South Dakota Needs More Teachers

For now, let's enjoy the summer vacations, family camping weekends, and the swimming pools - but the middle of August will be here before we know it. And that means back to school. Parents will be ready (trust me), but will the South Dakota schools system be ready?

A new report by the Pierre's Capital Journal states that out of the 837 open teacher positions for the 2015 - 2016 school year, one-third are still open.

More alarming, the number of applicant's has dropped 25% from last year.

The teacher shortage is real and it is only going to get worse. If a long-term funding solution for schools to provide more dollars to teachers isn't developed, K-12 schools in South Dakota are in big trouble." - School Administrators of South Dakota Executive Director Rob Monson

I love South Dakota, and it pains me that we, as a state, are dead last in teacher pay in the nation.

North Dakota used to be mired at the bottom along with us, but the oil boom has boosted the states teacher and education coffers. Now, South Dakota sits on the very bottom (again) with Mississippi just ahead of us. Mississippi!

In another survey from the School Administrators of South Dakota, 770 college students earned a teaching degree last year, and a whopping one-third of them took teaching positions in other states for higher pay.

South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard has set up a task force to try to find some answers. But for now, the school boards across the state are looking through the file cabinets of yore and asking retired teachers to come back to work to fill the open positions.

There is no justified universe where I, a hack writer, semi-accurate weather guy, and a spinner of rock tunes on the radio, should make more money than a noble, dynamic, inspiring teacher shaping the minds of today's youth.