Three dollar bills
Three K-12 education special project bills survived the Senate Appropriations cutting room floor on Tuesday. Each bill heads to the Senate floor today with just one dollar attached to them
Committee members passed Senate Bill 233, which establishes the critical needs teaching scholarship program for student’s looking to enter the teaching profession in a critical needs curriculum area and stay in South Dakota after completing their degree. SB 233 passed on an 8-0 vote.
If passed, the final dollar amount appropriated from the general fund would be used to start a trust fund for the program.
ASBSD is monitoring the bill.
Senate Bill 76 passed the committee on an 8-0 vote as well, but was amended along the way.
SB 76 reached Senate Appropriations as a bill that created a grant program for ESAs and school districts. However, the provision allowing school districts to apply for grants was removed, leaving ESAs as the only possible grant recipients in the new version.
ASBSD is monitoring the bill.
Committee members voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 229, which appropriates one-time dollars from the general fund to school districts for Career and Technical Education programs. Initially, SB 229 appropriated $1.5 million for CTE programs.
ASBSD is opposed to the bill.
Today marks “Crossover Day” and the bills must be passed to the House or deferred by the end of the day. For updates on these bills, check the ASBSD blog and bill tracker.
Special projects stopped
Four special project bills were deferred to the 41st legislative day in Senate and House Appropriations.
House Bill 1166, which would have rewarded teachers in school districts with bonuses based on the percentage of graduates not taking remediation courses upon entering higher education, and House Bill 1172, which called for the appropriation of $1.5 million from the general fund in the form of one-time dollars for school districts to use on career and technical education courses, were voted down by House Appropriations last week.
House Appropriations members deferred House Bill 1183, which called for the appropriation of funds to put a computer and Internet access into the homes of preschool aged children to prepare them for school, on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Senate Appropriations committee members tabled Senate Bill 188, which would have provided $500,000 in funding, taken from the general fund, for the Teach for America grant program.