Vermillion Plain Talk: Daugaard is Wizard of Oz

South Dakota's Republican Governor Denny Daugaard already sits on the state's death panel.

I honestly feel like I am having a "Wizard of Oz" moment. You know, the one where they are off to see the Wizard in the Emerald City, believing in the big, exciting image of the Wizard. Then they arrive and look behind the curtain… For schools that have been living on the edge and trimming programs to cut their general fund budgets more and more in the last few years, this proposal is once again going to force the local districts to be the bad guys. While the new funding plan would be more transparent for both legislators and districts, it is still falling short of the needs of the schools across South Dakota. I would say as a state, we are currently on the Yellow Brick Road.

Read the rest here.

K-12 Achievement: D (65.2), Status: D- (62.5), Change: F (57.6), School Finance: D (66.3), Spending: F (48.6). Read it all at Education Week.

More evidence of Daugaard tyranny: a third of qualified teaching grads leave South Dakota while the remainder struggle with certification.

Interesting read. State proposal making local school boards the bad guys again? Thanks @larry_kurtz for sharing. https://t.co/NlvSkF1G3U

— Mike Henriksen (@MikeHenriksen) January 15, 2016