South Dakota Teachers See Double Digit Salary Gains

Most bills in the South Dakota Legislature don’t get catchy monikers like they do at the federal level. Nonetheless, HB1182 has raised educators’ salaries statewide while drawing closer to their regional peers.

Governor Dennis Daugaard announced the findings from the South Dakota Department of Education as preliminary data says the state will be very close to reaching their $48,500 salary target.

"The numbers are preliminary, of course. We won't know the actual salaries until after the end of the school year. It shows that salaries are up across the state an average of about $47,000 (which is) almost 12 percent increase across the state which is very good."

In the numbers, Daugaard finds the larger districts will be close to the target average while the smaller districts saw the percentages leap forward.

"The larger school districts will (end up) close to the average or maybe a little bit less because they started out with higher salaries. We're really seeing good salary jumps in some of the smaller school districts with 15, 18, 20 and over 20 percent increases in some of the smaller school districts."

Legislators approved a half percent increase in sales tax that would not only raise teacher salaries in K-12 schools, it would also support faculty pay raises at the four technical institutes and provide property tax relief.

HB1182 was the main component of reforms offered by the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Education.

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