Teachers get the short stick

The Rapid City Journal reported today on our stiffing of Rapid City teachers, through the actions of our representatives in Pierre and on the RC School Board. Read the article; Margio Rosario and Eric Abrahamson seem to be the only ones that really get it.

The root of the problem is so damn clear. Look no farther than the Journal's (usually ugly) Good Bad and Ugly feature for Jan 9 illustrates why things are as they are:

THE UGLY: The 2007 Legislature begins its session today. Guard your pocketbooks, citizens.

The problem is that in the name of low taxes as religion, we tax people so unfairly, and the system is getting MORE regressive, not less.

It's really sad to see some of the best teachers in the nation treated this way by the voters, who continue to believe that less is more. And it really isn't about low taxes but really about FAIR taxes: for anyone making under $50K a year in South Dakota (a huge number of them families with kids), less is indeed far less. And everyone suffers the refusal of people in power to pay their fair share--instead we see 30 million dollars from our smokers--largely low income folks--going not to stopping smoking, but to squeak our State budget in balance on the backs of low income people. That's what the cigarette tax was really about--squeezing a little more money from people that cannot complain.

The truth is, you get what you pay for.

And, to contradict a local accounting firm's slogan, it isn't about what you keep. In fact, it's not even about you.

It's about what we collectively value--and in SD it apparently isn't our kids or our future and the teachers we depend on to support both.