Governor Dennis Daugaard proposed a two percent increase to state aid for schools for next year during his budget address on Tuesday (12/2), which will result in approximately $96 more per-student bringing the per-student allocation to approximately $4877 for the 2015-16 school year.

 

The rate of inflation came in at 1.5 percent, which would have been the minimum increase to state funding required by state law, and Gov. Daugaard said to reach two percent changes would be proposed to other areas of school funding.

 

Those funding changes will come in the areas of technology in schools, sparsity factor and student assessment, which have previously been paid entirely by the state.

 

This year, however, the cost of the three funding areas will be shared with local property taxes similar to how the PSA is funded through the Cutler-Gabriel split of 52 percent state aid and 48 percent local taxpayer dollars.

 

Officials from the Governor’s office have said the shift will save the state $2.6 million for the 2015-16 school year and will not affect the total amount that would have been paid to schools under the old system, but will account for the 0.5 percent increase to the PSA, from 1.5 to 2 percent, proposed by Gov. Daugaard.

 

State officials also noted property tax levies for general education will still go down this year even with the shift in the funding mechanism.

 

ASBSD will continue to review the proposed changes and provide updates as they become available.