Week four of the legislative session was the only week that consisted of five days; the rest are four day weeks. The session is almost halfway done.

Senate Bill 82 would have required Congressional action for the National Guard to be deployed by the Federal Government. There are a number of reasons the National Guard may be deployed by both the State and Federal Government such as responding to disasters and combat missions. SB 82 was opposed by South Dakota’s Adjutant General. Ninety-six percent of the South Dakota National Guard’s funding is from Federal funds; passage of this bill likely would have jeopardized these funds and the SDNG would not have the resources to respond to situations in the state either. Putting our State and National security at risk to make political points is wrong. Twenty-nine senators did their duty to support the National Guard and keep the country safe by voting against SB 82; it failed, 29-6, after passing out of committee, 3-1.

Senate Bill 95 appropriates money to the County Rural Access Infrastructure Fund and was heard in the Transportation Committee. Counties and townships continue to struggle financially; funding for infrastructure is greatly needed. SB 95 was referred on a 7-0 vote to the Appropriations Committee to continue as a part of the budget discussions.

It appears that some in the Legislature would also like to be school board members. Senate Bill 161 puts a limit on how much pay administrators could receive in comparison to teacher salaries. Nothing in this bill would have guaranteed that teachers would get paid more; in fact, the South Dakota Education Association representing teachers opposed the bill in committee. Instead of promoting socialist policies like this that go so far as to dictate certain professions maximum pay, we should let school board members who are locally elected do their jobs and recruit and retain the best people they can for all positions in schools. Administrators include Superintendents, Principals, Business Managers, etc. Every time the legislature passes the next bright idea on education we make administrator and teacher jobs harder and that contributes to the high turnover in school staff which in turn creates more challenges. SB 162 passed the Senate Education Committee, 4-3, and failed, 22-13, on the Senate floor; I voted against this. I can be contacted at 605-660-6468 or kyle.schoenfish@sdlegislature.gov -Kyle Schoenfish District 19 State Senator Chairman of Senate Education