Legislators emphasize collaboration in upcoming session

Maintaining adequate funding for public schools in rural areas across the state as property tax bills are presented in the 2026 South Dakota Legislative Session was the primary concern of school leaders who met in Custer Nov. 19 for a special board meeting with District 30 Rep. Trish Ladner and Sen. Amber Hulse. 
Custer School District (CSD) superintendent Tim Frederick opened the meeting by asking Ladner and Hulse if there was representation from District 30 in the recent Comprehensive Property Tax Task Force study. Ladner said the task force was appointed by the leadership of the House and Senate, along with Gov. Larry Rhoden, and District 30 legislators were not involved for political reasons. 
“However, having seen the results of the task force, I’m pretty pleased my name’s not on it,” said Ladner. “We’ll get a lot of work done. There’s time to do it, and the heart to do it. I can tell you this, if we have 21 property tax bills again this year, nothing is going to get passed again. So we need to consolidate as representatives and senators and jump on the same bandwagon for the people.”
Hulse said it was important to understand the political gamesmanship, especially with the upcoming election in 2026. She added that the last legislative session got really messy. 
“We’ve got leadership, many of which are involved in different campaigns themselves. So they don’t want a freshman legislator to be successful because that usurps their power as leaders. There’s a lot more personal dynamics that get in the way of the good of the people that are very, very frustrating,” said Hulse.
In the upcoming session, Hulse said it is important that legislators come together to create a package that everyone can agree on, because the task force recommendations were similar to the bills that failed in the last session. 
“I really don’t care who gets the credit anymore. I think we need to live by the saying that ‘There’s no amount of good that you can do if you don’t care who gets credit,’” said Hulse. 
Hill City School District superintendent Blake Gardner said property tax funding is the lifeblood of the district. As reforms take place in the upcoming session, Gardner asked that the legislators solicit feedback from educational leaders. 
“We’re very sympathetic to the tax burden. We’re aware of that, but we also want to make sure that we don’t go backwards in the process. I think there’s a solution out there, and it just requires collaboration that apparently did not happen over the summer,” said Gardner. “We’re not here to fight you. We’re here to help you.”
Frederick said the other thing that needs to be looked at is how schools across the state are funded differently based on the formula and how to distribute funds in a way that is neutral and fair.
Hulse said this was difficult because problems in school districts across the state are different, but they are contributing to the same output of high property taxes. In the middle of the state, Hulse said people do not want to talk about the school funding formula and property taxes because they receive more state aid and thus do not have the same property tax problems. She added that it was important to look at who is in leadership and where their support is coming from, as that affects how things go down.
Ladner said that another challenge was the population and voter difference between the Sioux Falls area, District 30 and beyond. 
“We have to get all our voices together to even halfway compete with Sioux Falls,” said Ladner. 
CSD board member Heath Reindl asked if Ladner felt there was collaboration in the smaller West River communities. Ladner answered, “not yet,” but said conversations are being had. 
What many people do not realize, Ladner said, is that funding K-12 education with property taxes is part of the constitution. Thus, predictable replacement funding has to be supplied unless a constitutional amendment is made. 
“People don’t like messing with the constitution, and I’m glad they don’t,” said Ladner. 
As an example, Ladner brought up former District 30 Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller’s proposed initiated amendment of $1.50 tax on every purchase of $15 or more to replace property tax. For purchases under $15, there would be a 10 percent tax, plus the 4.2 percent sales tax. 
Ladner said every single person in the state would have to have 3.72 receipts per day to replace the income needed for schools. 
“Then, it’s given the legislator the ability to raise that $1.50 every year if they want to, at the maximum of 5 cents, with no cap on that. So that can keep going up,” said Ladner. 
Ladner expects the amendment will get on the next ballot, but if it passes, she said, “It is the expert opinion that the city, counties and municipalities should be very, very, very scared.”
Ladner offered to share her research on the amendment and said the prediction is that the proposal will come up $800 million short, which will then be taken from different programs. 
“There’s a better way,” said Ladner. 
“And then there’s no proof as to how you get that distributed properly to the schools that need it most,” said Hulse. 
Hulse called it “a Tax the Poor Tour,” because it would hurt people who do not own homes more. She said the average home-buying American right now is 60 years old. 
“As we continue to hear concerns from older people who are on fixed incomes, you also have to be aware of how some of those policies affect young people. Every time that you reduce somebody’s property taxes back to when they were 65 20 years ago, whatever they aren’t paying anymore gets dumped onto everybody else that doesn’t get that exemption,” Hulse said. “So you have to be really careful that you’re not policy making for a few to then hurt everyone else.”
Frederick said he found it interesting that nine of the task force proposals specifically attacked K-12 education. He said the language has to allow districts to generate the same dollar amount they would have if the district were getting funding from property taxes. 
“That will hurt a lot of our districts if you’re only going to be able to take what the funding formula says we should get, because we’re above that. Hill City’s above it too,” said Frederick.
Frederick also emphasized local control and allowing school boards to make decisions. 
Gardner said he recently heard that “educational decisions should be made by those closest to the child. We don’t want feds telling the state what to do. I would ask you to convince your colleagues in Pierre to remember that the decisions should be made by the smart people in this room.” 
Hulse said she is emphasizing local control and hopes it will be an argument that people will buy into. 
“I do think that if it’s the governor’s proposal, it will be more successful than an individual legislator’s proposal based off of my experience last legislative session,” he said. “But I hope that the governor, especially now that he’s running for re-election, is more amenable to bringing more legislators to the table and asking our opinion, because that was not the case last legislative session.” 
Regardless, Ladner said they got some good and thoughtful points through last session, like the tax freeze for residents 65 or older. Hulse said it would be nice to see more communication to avoid repeating the results of the 2025 session.
The other thing Gardner asked is that Ladner and Hulse advocate against the rhetoric that public schools are “failing kids and failing our communities” and ensure public funding stays in public schools. As someone recently out of the public school system, Hulse said she always tries to share her personal and positive perspective on the topic. 
Another topic of discussion was a result of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. 
Gardner said, “basically, any individual within 300 percent of the median poverty rate can get a $1,700 tax credit, $3,400 per family. As long as public schools have a scholarship-granting foundation, we can accept that money, which I think is a good thing for us. That levels the playing field.”
Details are still coming out, but Gardner said Hill City is working on creating a foundation to be able to accept those. 
Edgemont School District superintendent Amy Ferley asked what the money could go toward, saying she was skeptical. 
“If it really does work to where we can get that back into the public system, it will be great,” said CSD board vice president Travis Hartshorn. 
However, he was concerned it would lead to public funding going to private schools and home schools, which would then “poach” students from the public school system. 
“The scary thing is that it’s going to probably create a higher peak of students that are going to leave public education,” Frederick said. “That amount that you’re going to be able to raise in a foundation is not going to come close to what you’re losing.”
“In the White House, the rhetoric is public schools suck, and that we should push everybody to be able to afford private school or charter school and get people out of the public school system, because a majority of public schools around the country are seen as teaching ideology or not doing their jobs to educate and produce productive members of society,” said Hulse. “So I think that this is partially something to try to fund the industry of private schools by doing it in a way that seems fair because the taxpayer gets to decide where they want to donate that money to.” 
Hulse said it was a hard situation because she is supposed to be a school choice advocate, but it is hurting public schools in the local area, which are the best in her opinion.
Elk Mountain School District business manager Shaun Pitts said last year Wyoming legislature approved $7,000 for anyone wanting to home school their students with “loose standards.” Newcastle saw an enrollment drop from 928 to 711. 
Thus, Pitts thought the scholarships should be looked at cautiously and the appropriate accountability had to be in place. Ladner agreed that it needed tight guidelines to avoid negatively affecting public schools.
Ferley has heard that competition is good for business, but she would like to see data proving that it would improve schools, especially when rural areas do not have enough “customers.” 
“I struggle ideologically with this because I think that if you don’t like what the public service is offering, then you have to pay for that on your own,” Hulse said.
“We are blessed with great people in this area,” said Frederick. “One of the things I’m here to tell you is our education system is not broken. Can we get better? Absolutely. But I can tell you that all of these people that are at this table right now all have great confidence in the people that they have working in their school system. 
“We are so fortunate to have the teachers, community leaders, administrators and school boards that we have, because we are getting it done. We’re going to need your support more than ever in Pierre this year on local control.” 
Also discussed at the Nov. 19 meeting: 
• Pitts explained how the mil structure for Elk Mountain School District has been declining, and the district cannot take state aid to supplement the difference. He provided handouts with the information and asked Ladner and Hulse for their support. Pitts said he did not have a solution, but it was a huge hit to the funding of the school. 
• CSD special education director Rhonda Frederick said the South Dakota Case Executive Board, which is the council for special education administrators, would like legislators to consider a bill to put the category of Other Health Impairment into a level two funding because a lot of children in that category are requiring a considerable amount of support. Hulse and Ladner recommended legislators who might support such a bill.
• Ladner and Hulse emphasized that anyone could email, call or text them with concerns. Hulse said she checks her phone for text messages during legislative sessions regularly and appreciates the information experts in the field can provide on different issues.