Below is an email sent to the staff of the Marion Staff/Board from Mr. Brosnahan. We urge you to be involved in the legislative process and that can begin with contacting our District 16 Legislators. Please contact Mr. Brosnahan at the school if you'd like to learn more or regarding ways to be more involved:

Good morning,

Governor Larry Rhoden delivered his first budget address on Tuesday, outlining the state’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Below is a summary of the key points (and some possible talking points) that directly affect public education:

Funding to Public Education

  • The Governor’s proposal includes a 0% increase in state funding for K–12 education, Medicaid providers, and state employees {except he did note a $3,000,000 increase to pay for state employees' (WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE SCHOOL EMPLOYEE INSURANCE) increase to health insurance...So it's truly not 0% }.

  • Rhoden noted that state revenues are “essentially flat,” which limits the ability to fund increases this year.

  • Superintendents and boards across South Dakota have expressed concern that a flat budget, combined with inflation and rising costs, effectively reduces the spending power of school districts.  What does this mean?  Costs like insurance (building/health/etc.), utilities, classroom supplies, transportation, technology, etc. all continue to increase...with those increases we essentially go backwards if funding stays flat.  This is very concerning.  Additionally, we had a decline in enrollment this year which also impacts our bottom line...Even a 1-3% increase doesn't represent "new spending" for public schools, it just keeps us from falling further behind.

State Reserve Fund Increase

  • The State has had the past practice of holding reserve funds at 10%.  The Governor has proposed raising the state’s reserve fund from 10% to 12.5%. This would mean that an additional $63,000,000 to $70,000,000+ dollars would go into that reserve fund.

  • He stated that the intent of this would be to strengthen the state’s financial cushion and prepare for a "rainy day" or possible economic downturn.

Unallocated Funds

  • The budget leaves roughly $14 million unallocated, which will be available for the Legislature to consider during the upcoming session...All groups are going to be going after these monies so pulling additional dollars from this will be difficult.

What Can You/We do???

---TALK TO PEOPLE!!!!  Talk to our community members and have conversations! This isn't just about the Marion School District, this impacts all of our public schools, students, employees, and communities.

  • If you have a "pie in the sky" mentality, a 0% increase is not a cut...BUT the cost of doing business will continue to increase and our teachers/employees deserve better.  All we've heard for the many years that our teacher pay is at or near the bottom of the country, they've worked to make improvements to get us to 45th or 46th and budgets like this will unfortunately have this ranking again trend downward.

  • Zero percent is truly a cut with the increase in expenditures and you can specifically outline the items above noted if examples are needed.

  • Without additional funding districts will possibly have to reduce or eliminate programs, possibly have to limit purchasing or providing technology updates, possibly delay (or be forced to not offer) staff raises, or possibly have to reduce staffing over time.  

  • Our school benefits our entire community and tout/brag about the AMAZING things that happen everyday here in our school and others!!!!

  • CONTACT OUR DISTRICT 16 LEGISLATORS (or whatever district you live in...you can use this to find your representatives if you're unsure, Find My Legislators | South Dakota Legislature): Senator Kevin Jensen (business owner) 605-366-6947 or kevin.jensen@sdlegislature.gov, Representative Karla Lems (business owner) 605-773-385 or karla.lems@sdlegislature.gov, and Representative John Shubeck (Farmer) 605-773-3851 or john.shubeck@sdlegislature.gov.

  • Increasing the reserves from 10 to 12.5% isn't something that should take priority over educating our students and running our schools.

I'm happy to have further conversations if there are questions!!!  This is all just starting but having a proactive and quick response now, I believe, can help to start the conversation locally and throughout the state to hopefully provide us some leverage when session begins.  Sorry for any negativity here but I wanted to keep everyone in the loop and updated.  Thank you for your time!

Brian Brosnahan