Educators, legislators divided over referred law 16 - KOTA Territory News

Educators, legislators divided over referred law 16

A hotly contested education reform proposal by South Dakota's Governor will soon be approved or denied by voters on election day.
 
Referred law 16 would grant performance-based teacher bonuses, end tenure and grant scholarships to education majors in the math and science fields.

Educators say the bill takes one-size-fits all approach to education and has no supporting educational data to prove the model would produce results.

Proponents of the reform measure say it takes a much needed progressive approach to improving education and rewarding progress.
 
"Even though it's not perfect, its a good start. And I believe that over time, the educational community and legislature can develop it using the aspects in the bill," said Republican Sen. Bruce Rampelberg, District 30.
 
"I would have liked to see more educators, superintendents, teachers be involved in the process and there wasn't. So I believe in local control and that it shouldn't be coming from the state," said Jackie Swanson, former educator and district 28 candidate.
 
The law appears on the ballot as a veto referendum, meaning opponents of the proposal gathered 30,000 signatures to bring it to a public vote.