PIERRE - Gov. Mike Rounds opened the 2007 Legislature on Tuesday with calls for a higher minimum wage and pilot pre-school projects coordinated with the Sioux Falls School District.
Both proposals instantly found support and criticism from some of the assembled 105 lawmakers who will spend the next 39 days in session.
Rounds, who opened his message with get-well wishes for hospitalized U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, also recommended a special high-speed Internet to handle the growing research programs in the state.
The governor also said he'll try again to start a state-local district matching program to raise teacher salaries.
The preschool program Rounds outlined would be a model for future expansion across the state, he said.
"During the next three years, we will be working with the Sioux Falls School District on a pilot preschool project so that as more and more preschool is offered in South Dakota, we do it in the most cost-efficient and educationally effective manner possible for any entity that wants to offer preschool," Rounds said.
He said the University of South Dakota would evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot project "so that best practices can be shared with the rest of the state.''
Rounds said more than 85 percent of a child's brain structure develops by age 5.
He said for every $1 spent on quality preschool, a community saves $7 later in lower special education costs, school retention, lower judicial costs and welfare.
"As we learn from the Sioux Falls pilot, we will be expanding the pilot projects to other communities of various sizes and differing resources," Rounds said.
Democratic Sen. Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls cheered the preschool idea.
"If we can start helping to develop those little minds at an earlier age, it pays incredible dividends to the child and the community,'' he said.
Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, said he's concerned, and only in part because a voluntary pilot program will surely result in pressure for an expensive, mandatory state-wide program.
"I have some pretty deep concerns about preschool," said Rhoden, majority leader of the House. Among those concerns are taking children away from parental instruction at an early age and moving them into a formal education structure.
"I worry when we start to abdicate the parents' role," he said.
Cultural training as part of Indian Education Act
Rounds said he'll sponsor an Indian Education Act to put in law many things schools already do. That will include requirements that new teachers receive cultural training so they can teach Lakota, Dakota and Nakota children in South Dakota.
Rounds said as many as 12,000 Native American students attend public schools in the state.
He said the graduation rate statewide is 89 percent, but it is only 6 percent for Native American students.
"We're going to do more to increase that percentage," the governor said.
Last year, the governor unsuccessfully proposed a teacher salary program that would have matched state money with local funds for targeted pay increases based on district goals for instruction or market competition. He said he'll provide $4 million for such a program this year if local schools put up $2 million.
Rep. Phyllis Heineman, R-Sioux Falls, said such a program makes sense.
"We have to do something different to give those great teachers incentives," she said.
Comment: I've always been interested in what early childhood is doing across the nation and the world, but since my meeting with the Early Childhood Development Coalition, I realize that we will probably be adopting what other states are doing, so it's good for everyone to keep abreast of the problems and the successes other states are having.
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