State lawmakers on the appropriations committee are rearranging how they want one million dollars distributed to South Dakota Tech schools. Wednesday afternoon members of the Joint Appropriations committee met in Sioux Falls. They heard from education leaders and voted to change an earlier decision.
An over-calculation of students left South Dakota’s technical schools with one million dollars. Lawmakers decided to infuse that money into school infrastructure instead of reabsorbing the dollars into the state’s budget. State Representative Justin Cronin helped make that decision during the last week of the legislative session.
"It was originally drafted in the letter of intent that we adopted March 30, per-student basis. The committee had discussion," Cronin says. "We talked about it. No one really had a problem with that. No one spoke against it. We were under the assumption that we kind of had it the way they wanted it."
Cronin refers to the leaders of South Dakota’s tech schools. Lawmakers later learned from all four school presidents that they would rather invest equal amounts of 250-thousand dollars into tech education. Cronin says legislators are listening.
"Southeast Technically Institute was probably going to get quite a bit more than the other three, but they all got together and agreed that this should be something that’s split up equally. They’re trying to build students and build programs across the state, get us a better workforce," Cronin says. "And I’ve got to give them credit. They came and asked, and, if the presidents ask us to do something, spend money in a little different way, we’re going to take a hard look at it. And this time we decided that they’re, you know, I can’t argue with them. It’s much better to spread it around and let everybody have a bite at the apple."
Cronin says the money helps schools alongside a $50 million scholarship initiative. It offers money for tech school students going into fields where South Dakota needs workers. Build Dakota scholarship winners commit to staying in South Dakota for three years after they graduate. Businessman T. Denny Sanford is donating half of the money. The other $25 million is coming from the state’s Future Fund.