While the state improved its national ranking for teacher pay during the 23-24 school year, it’s still in the bottom five.
However, advocates say future solutions aren’t going to come easy as the Legislature looks to cut a major education funding source.
Rising from 49th to 46th, some would say the state is trending in the right direction in terms of improving the average teacher salary. However, the $56,000 figure was still $3,400 lower than the state’s target for the 2023-2024 school year.
Had that target been hit, the state would’ve improved its placement by eight spots.
That was one of many topics examined at the latest Teacher Compensation Review Board meeting.
Democratic Rep. Eric Emery is on the board. He said everybody wants to see teachers get paid at a higher rate, but the money has to come from somewhere, and that’s where the issue lies.
“We know we don’t have the tax revenue to push for a 5% raise for our educators. We know that’s not realistic without increasing some sort of tax revenue, whether that’s property taxes. I think I sit on another committee that we’re arguing for property taxes and how, you know, we wanna cut property taxes, but yet we want to create a new tax to fund these other things," Emery said. "So, at the end of the day, I mean we’re in a tough situation where our constituents want their taxes lowered, but yet they want all these services delivered.”
Property taxes are a major funding source for schools in South Dakota.
For the 2025-2026 school year, the target salary for the state is nearly $63,000.
While the state’s average pay is among the lowest in the U.S., a national survey shows South Dakota is retaining teachers about average.
Caitlin Scott is with Marzano Research. She said the state’s retaining 84% of teachers, the same percent as the national average.
“This data shows that we’re around the national average, so not an extreme concern," Scott said. "One thing you might ask is, ‘Why aren’t we at 100%?’ Well, one of the things that’s important to note is that this includes retirement, so you’re never going to have a year where every teacher stays in the same school and same job.”
That’s 7% better than North Dakota, but worse than other states in the region like Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana.
