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Mike Rounds on Education
Republican SD Governor
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Voted for to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education
Senator Mike Rounds will not be swayed by Senate Democrats and constituents looking to derail the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Rounds' office released the following statement: "He intends to support the nomination of
Betsy DeVos because she understands the need to keep education decisions at the local level: with parents, teachers, school boards and students."
Source: Argus Leader on 2020 Soutah Dakota Senate race
, Feb 6, 2017
Provide a quality education for our children
Mike’s Priorities- Balancing the State’s Budget and Reducing the Structural Deficit While:
- Taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves--the very young and the very old
- Protecting society from those who would do us harm
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Providing a quality education for our children because they are our future
- Growing South Dakota’s economy
- Improving Tribal relations
Source: 2006 Gubernatorial website, roundsforgov.com, “Issues”
, Nov 7, 2006
Internet sales tax to raise education funding
Out-of-state companies make millions of dollars in sales in South Dakota over the Internet, but they avoid collecting sales tax. Fortunately, the South Dakota legislature has already approved a “fix” for this problem, enabling a smooth transition to
Internet sales tax collection. The moratorium expires in 2003. Thus, we can conservatively expect to eliminate the on-going deficit, reduce property taxes by an additional 5%, and increase state aid to education by about $250 per child.
Source: 2002 Gubernatorial site, RoundsForGov.com, “Property Tax”
, Oct 17, 2002
Participate in federal program Race to the Top.
Rounds signed Letter from 9 Governors to Secretary of Education Duncan
Our states need more time to properly evaluate the changes needed to resubmit our applications, as well as to engage in meaningful and collaborative discussions with our legislatures, our schools, our unions, and our communities. We need to make informed changes to our applications, whether in the area of evaluations, turnarounds, standards, or data collection. These changes will be stronger if they are informed by the comments of those who reviewed our initial application.
Therefore, we request that you considerably accelerate the timeline for release of peer reviewers' comments and scores from Phase One or extend the deadline to submit our Phase 2 application until July 1, 2010; so our states can continue the necessary hard work, without losing momentum, to reform education and apply for Race to the Top Phase Two.
As Governors -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- we were proud to stand with President Obama, and with you, to bring about real systemic change in education through the Race to the Top competition. Under the first phase of competition, you saw forty states and the District of Columbia respond to your call. While only fifteen states and the District of Columbia were selected as finalists for Phase One, we all remain committed to pursuing necessary reforms to help ensure that our states' applications are competitive for the second phase of funding.
The finalists were announced on March 4, with applications for next round due less than 90 days later on June 1. You also announced that our comments and feedback on our applications would not be available until sometime in April, which would further reduce that already short timeline for meaningful course correction to fewer than 60 days.
Source: Letter from 9 Governors to Secretary of Education Duncan 100316-Gov on Mar 16, 2010
Page last updated: Feb 27, 2022