From the Mitchell Daily Republic:
Mitchell residents will have to wait two more weeks to hear if Superintendent of Schools Joe Graves will run for the state Legislature.
In an unexpected action Monday, the school board amended its agenda and deferred several executive session items, among them the evaluation of Graves’ performance as superintendent, an executive session to discuss the district’s leave policy should Graves decide to run for office in November, and possible consideration of his request to run.
The report also covered my public input:
Heard comments from resident Steve Sibson, who also is considering a run for the state Legislature. Sibson said he disagreed with the Associated School Boards of South Dakota position that more funding is needed for pre-K education. Studies have shown, he said, that pre-K schooling is unlikely to improve student school performance. Sibson said that standards already exist for pre-K education and legislation isn’t necessary to create new standards. He expressed distrust of the imposition of federal programs that might erode local control of schools.
First off the position of the "Associated School Boards of South Dakota" regarding pre-K was this:
Citing the effectiveness and efficiency of high-quality pre-kindergarten programming, school board members also voted to support the "development of content and accreditation standards for voluntary pre-k programs."
Currently, there are no established pre-k standards despite the many public and private entities that offer pre-k services in South Dakota.
Alm said allowing the State Board of Education to develop voluntary standards would provide a measure of uniformity across the state and better align early childhood education programming to K-12 content standards in place.
"With No Child Left Behind, our schools have to provide a high-quality education for every student," Alm said. "If we truly want to reach every student, our schools will need to leverage high-quality early childhood programming."
Establishment of pre-k standards and accreditation is a key component of Gov. Rounds 2010 Education initiative. A bill to grant the State Board of Education rule-making authority over pre-k standards failed last legislative session.
Alm anticipates the topic will resurface this legislative session, and he says school board members are ready to work with state officials to usher a bill through the legislative process.
Where does it say anything about funding pre-K education? The legislation is about "development of content and accreditation standards for voluntary pre-k programs." I pointed out that those standards are already created and available as is voluntary accreditation. Again, we have the media more interested in tabloid coverage of who is running, and not in-depth and accurate reporting on the issues regarding current legislation.
