Transcripts For CSPAN2 South Dakota State Of The State 20180

CSPAN2 South Dakota State Of The State February 9, 2018

[applause]. [applause]. [applause]. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you, lt. Governor, youre outstanding. Thank you all for being here today. To begin, id like to recognize two new legislators, first, doug bartel, i appointed doug to replace don hager has a district 10 representative. Doug spent his career in Law Enforcement, including ten years as sioux falls chief of police. He was here for the budget address, but lets welcome him again. Doug, where are you . Welcome. [applaus [applause] second is mike dietrich. I appointed mike last month following the loss of our friend, craig. Mike is an attorney and an experienced legislator having served three terms in the 80s and 90s. I really appreciate his willingness to serve especially on just such short notice. Please join me in welcoming mike dietrich. [applaus [applause] today id like to look back at some of the things weve accomplished together over the past seven years and also update you on some progress, and ill also offer some new proposals to consider this year. Id like to start today by talking about work force. Last fall i was pleased to be named to the president s task force and apprenticeships. In june i began one year term as chair of the western Governors Association. I selected Workforce Development as policy focus for my oneyear term. The wga held workforce summits in sue false, denver, oak sioux falls. Next summer we will host our annual meeting in rapid city. In all this i see two interrelated problems in south dakota. From the perspective of businesses and employers our state does not have enough workers in many fields. We have companies that do not expand or turn away business because they can not hire enough skilled workers to do the work. Almost any Business Owner will identify workforce as a significant concern. But we must, we must also see this from the perspective of our young people. We want them to receive an education that allows them to find wellpaying, fulfilling jobs here in south dakota. We have an excellent Education System in our state but we must help all of our young people achieve this goal. So how are we doing . First, some national perspective. It is clear that Postsecondary Education is important in todays job market. When i graduated from college in the 70s Postsecondary Education was not especially common. A few years ago, a Harvard University study entitled, pathways to prosperity, looked back to 1973, about that time. At that time nearly 3 4 of jobs held by workers with a High School Diploma or less. In 2016 Georgetown University center on education in the workforce issued a report, americas divided recovery, which found that only 34 of jobs are now filled with employees with a High School Diploma or less. And this trend toward workers with more than a High School Diploma began in the early 2000s, and has recently accelerated. And jobs for those with no postsecondary training are trending down even faster. Georgetowns report showed that in the six years after the recession ended, the economy added 11. 6 million jobs. 11. 5 of them, or 99 , have gone to workers with at least some Postsecondary Education. Those with the High School Diploma or less gained only 80,000 jobs, less than 1 of those jobs. Looking at it another way, this graph from Georgetown University shows first the loss of jobs during the recession and then the recovery of jobs, the shaded area on the left, shows that the recession, from december 2007, to january of 2010. The blue line shows jobs held by those with a bachelors degree or more. The numbers show, as you can see, slight gains and losses during the recession. And then when it ended, 8. 4 million new jobs were added for those with a bachelors degree or higher. The orange line shows jobs held by those with associates degree, or some college, short of a bachelors degree. You can see about two million of these jobs were lost during the recession. This is the orange line. Lost during the recession. But regained afterward, plus 1. 1 million more. The green line shows jobs held by those with a High School Diploma or less. About six million jobs were lost during the recession and those with a High School Diploma or less have regained only 80,000 of them. So given this, we want our kids to graduate from high school, and then pursue some Postsecondary Education. These are things were already encouraging. Again we have to ask ourselves, how are we doing there in south dakota . To help us understand whats been happening, last spring i asked our department of education to look at ninth graders who enrolled in high school in 2006, 10 years ago, to see how they fared over the next 10 years. Why 10 years . Well it takes most students four years to graduate from high school and some Students Graduate College or tech schools, some in two years, some in four, some in five, and some might take six years to graduate. Most of the rest have quit by that time. So lets look at 10 years. Our best data is for students in public schools. We had 10,513 ninth graders Enter High School in south dakota in the fall of 2006. Now to make the numbers easier to follow well talk about 100 of them. As representing the cohort. Of those 100 ninth graders, 23 did not graduate. Leaving 77 high school graduates. Of those 77 graduates, about 2 3 of them, 52, entered some kind of Postsecondary Education. Some began a twoyear program. Some started a fouryear program. Less than half of them completed their program in south dakota by 2016. So six years after they began, less than half had completed. So thus of those 100 ninth graders, less than onefourth of them persisted to complete a postsecondary effort within 10 years. Some of the others have found or will find success through directly entering the workforce and succeeding there or joining the military, or through transferring and graduating from an outofstate institution or some other means, but many of these will not find the success we want them to find. Now this situation is not unique to south dakota. It is a problem seen across the nation. Colorado has a chart like this. It is almost exactly the same as ours. Ours is a little better. California has a similar chart. Now one piece of good news is that south dakota is getting better. Our High School Graduation rate is improving. At the postsecondary level the state universities are very focused on improving retention rates through graduation. Our best Technical Schools have a Graduation Rate over 70 . So we are improving. Still we have a long way to go. Too many students still do not complete their postsecondary efforts. Among young people who do pursue additional education after high school, many are unaware of which educational pathways lead to skills or credentials in demand and qualify a person for a good job. Two summers ago i hired a High School Student to do some work at our farm. He was a good student. Hardworking and respectful with good grades. I asked about his plans after graduation. He said he was going to enroll in a private university to major in psychology. Tuition, room and board at this school amounts to about 90,000 for four years, that that is if you graduate in four years. Mind you, only onefourth of students who enter a fouryear Degree Program graduate in four years. Later i asked the young man to lunch and provided him with new York Federal Reserve data showing poor job prospects for psychology majors, with the few jobs paying 25,000 or less. I also showed him that the number of psychology majors is huge, with much competition for the very few jobs available. He was very surprised. He had no idea. He said this is disconcerting. That is a quote. [laughter]. This is disconcerting. That is a smart kid, right . He was right. It should be disconcerting. And im not saying a psychology major cant be successful. Some employers require a bachelors degree in any field as prerequisite to applying. Many young people with social science grease go on to graduate school, that is what i did. Young people need to know this information when making these decisions before they make these decisions. We have taken several steps to improve this situation with an effort we call career launch. Were making high schools available to expand availability of work place such as internships or appresent at thisships or job shadowing. The best way to find fields they like or dont like is experience them. In addition these work experiences help our young people learn how to arrive on time. How to dress appropriately for the job. How to interact with coworkers an customers. And with fewer people, fewer students, holding jobs while in high school these days, workbased education experiences may be to the best way or even the only way to learn these foundational skills that every employer expects of every employee. Let me give you an example. In yankton, Many High School seniors plan their schedules so their traditional classes are compressed into half a day, either the morning or afternoon. During the other half of the day the students works at a paid internship with an employer in town. The student receives high school credit, paved at least 11 an hour, gains exposure to a career field an learns those foundational skills i just mentioned. This month were piloting career launch with four school district, sioux falls rapid city and yankton who have taken steps in this direction and we can help them move forward as well. We hope to expand this effort in the future to more districts. Assigned personnel will help schools coordinate employers to add workbased learning experience opportunities and they will also supplement a schools Career Counseling Services so young people receive more information about career fields and education pathways. Here is one example. Last month, i joined announcement in sioux falls of a Partnership Among dakota state university, southeast Technical Institute, the Sioux Falls School district and department of education. Through this Partnership High School Juniors and seniors will take dual credit courses in cybersecurity, Network Services or software development. These dual credit courses will count toward their High School Diploma. The courses count as stackable credentials towards college credit. They can earn a certificate from southeast tech, stop there, or go on to an associates degree. Stop there or go on to a bachelors degree at dakota state university. Students will also have the opportunity it work in a local business using their course training. The department of labor will work with dakota state and southeast tech to create a registered apprenticeship in these Technology Fields this is an example of the type of workbased education that i hope will take root in south dakota. Im particularly excited about this. When i was in switzerland i saw many students in hightech apprenticeships. We need to change the notion that apprenticeships are confined to the Construction Trade such as electricians or plumbers or carpenters. Apprentice ships can offer a pathway for training in many career fields. Were emphasizing training in these cyber fields, not only because of indemand, wellpaying jobs but also because its a strength of dakota state university. Dakota state announced last summer a generous 30 million doll garr gift from Denny Sanford and miles beacon. This gift to the computer of College Sciences will keep dakota state a National Leader where it is center of excellence designated by the National Security agency and department of homeland security. New programs, scholarship, new Research Facility are all being added. Of course the gift to the Beacon College is not the first time Denny Sanford made a major donation to advance Workforce Development n 2014 he donated 25 million, which the state matched to launch the 50 milliondollar build dakota scholarship fund, now in its third year. Approximately 300 students annually receive fullride scholarships to attend a Technical Institute. These students enroll in a highneed program and promise to work in south dakota after they graduate in fields like precision agriculture, automotive, surgical technology, robotics, or nursing. Nationally over the past four years enroll mane in twoyear institutions is down nearly 11 . In south dakota though during that period, Technical Institute enrollment is up 2 and in build dakota programs up nearly 10 . The first build dakota scholar graduated last fall and today 208 recipients are working in south dakota in a highneed field. Another important opportunity for High School Students is the state dual Credit Program now in its fourth year. You heard me say it many times, dual credit is a winwin, win. Students win, because these are the cheapest College Credits they will ever buy and they get a head start on college or tech school. High schools also win because they can expand their course offerings at no cost to the school district. Universities and tech schools win as well. Although we do ask them to discount the tuition rate, this program attracts more south dakota students to our institutions, retains more freshmen after the first year and helps graduate students on time. Last year 2224 High School Students took at least one dual credit course from a university. Another 934 took a Technical Institute course. The pass rate is excellent, over 90 . And the cost savings are substantial. Last year these students saved an estimated 5. 3 million, compared to the tuition rate they would otherwise pay. This year i will propose to update the state dual credit statute, and to clarify the manner in which the students, the institutions and the state share the cost of this program. I hope you will support that legislation. As i mentioned, i made workforce policy my policy initiative for the western Governors Association and i invited u. S. Secretary of labor alex acosta to participate in our first summit in sioux falls. When he was here he asked me as wgh chair to develop a priority of the Trump Administration, that is streamlining professional licensure. The Trump Administration is concerned that professional licensure standards hurt the economy by creating a barrier to entering many professions. Licensure can also make it difficult for professionals to move because each state has its own licensure requirements. Clearly professional licensure plays an Important Role in protecting the public of no one wants to be operated on by unlicensed doctor or have ones house wired but unlicensed electrician. We must make sure licensure is not used to keep qualify workers out of the market. I reached out to the governors of north dakota, montana, wyoming and colorado and all expressed an interest in a reciprocity compact for professional licensure. The idea is simple. If already licensed in one state, a professional can move to another member state and practice for 18 months, enough time to earn a license in that state if one chooses to do so. This year i will ask that you pass a statute to create this compact and to create reciprocity with any other state that also enacts it. The hope a number of western states will establish this compact which then can spread to other states as well. Id like now to speak about education. Two years ago we enacted the recommendations of the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Task force to increase teacher pay and Reform School funding. Im pleased with the progress to date. In the first year, average teacher pay in south dakota increased 8. 8 . We saw sizable salary increases across the state. In small districts and large. In fact some of the largest percentage actually happened in small districts. In faith, average teacher salaries increased 24. 7 . In wabay, they increased by 26point had . In lola, average teacher salaries increased 27. 8 . I heard from many superintendents have improved their ability to recruit and retain teachers. Certain geographic areas and fields of study are more difficult, we have improved the situation greatly. Im also pleased with the progress we made in transportation. Three years ago this body passed a comprehensive highway funding bill which generates 85 million in new annual revenue for roads and bridges. The measure raised the gas tax by six sent as gallon and increased the Motor Vehicle and exsides tax an license fees. Im happy to report the money is being put to good use.

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