Ever wonder why teachers keep showing up every day, even when it feels like everything’s stacked against them? You’ve heard the stories about teachers buying their own supplies, juggling side gigs, and getting way less respect than they deserve. Take South Dakota, for example: our teachers are ranked #46 in the nation for pay, and when it comes to respect, the numbers are perhaps worse. In fact, the recent State budget proposal and some legislators wanting even more cuts, indicate that we will be headed toward #50. Again. So why do they keep at it? It’s not about the paychecks—that’s for sure. It’s about making a difference.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: money is tight. In South Dakota, teachers are some of the lowest paid in America, and nobody’s handing out discounts for groceries or rent. Some of them hustle at second jobs, stretch their resources to the limit, and still find ways to fill their classrooms with supplies, snacks, and a whole lot of hope. Still, year after year, they’re back in those classrooms. Why? Because what they give can’t be counted in dollars—it’s about the lasting impact they leave on kids’ lives.
Teachers are holding the future, one restless third grader or overwhelmed high schooler at a time. They’re not just handing out homework—they’re the ones offering encouragement when a student is about to give up, or turning a classroom into a safe haven when home doesn’t feel all that safe. The wins that matter most aren’t standardized test scores; they’re the moments when a kid discovers they believe in themselves, finds their voice, or simply feels valued.
With shrinking budgets, crowded rooms or cobbled up spaces, and a culture that often shrugs at their work, you might think teachers would bail. But they stay. They stay because they see possibility where others see problems. They teach for the spark in a child’s eyes, for their communities, and for the country they know can be better. In a world that’s a little lost, teachers are the ones quietly pointing the way.
So, why do teachers stick with it for so long? Because real change takes time. Every day in the classroom is its own kind of quiet revolution—a promise to America’s youth that someone will show up, guide them, and never give up, no matter how rocky the road gets. In the end, it’s not politicians or CEOs shaping our future—it’s those teachers who ignore the hurdles and show up every day, changing lives one lesson at a time.
Different cities have different development strategies.
Some cities prescribe development. They do studies, create zoning laws, and fund public infrastructure in the direction they want the city to develop.
In this case, a developer usually pays only a development fee or hook-up fee for the public infrastructure. Sioux Falls is a great example of this. Development is driven by the government planning function, which includes the input of elected representatives and always includes public meetings and opportunities to comment.
The positive side of this for the developer is that the public infrastructure is in place and the zoning of the land is predetermined. It can also be the negative side. A developer may want to purchase a parcel of land for commercial development and may be told that this is not acceptable to the city because the parcel is zoned residential or industrial.
Given the pros and cons, this is the more orderly method of development. This method also allows the public to experience the benefits of the city’s strategic planning function.
The other type of development is one we see in Rapid City. That is where the developer purchases land and then seeks to change the zoning in some cases to what they feel is appropriate. Also, the developer determines in which direction the city will expand. It could literally be north, south, east, or west.
The upside of this style of development is that the free market appears to be in charge. This tests the boundaries of limited government. This style of development appears to be freer and more driven by consumer demand as interpreted by the developer.
The downside of this style of development is that public infrastructure is rarely in place when the project is ready to go. The question becomes: whose responsibility is it to develop and fund public infrastructure?
Rapid City uses tax increment financing (TIF) to create funds for public infrastructure and/or required improvements to the area.
Although complicated, the simplest version of this procedure is:
A tax increment district is developed. This encompasses the property to be developed and a contiguous larger area with undeveloped property. Once approved, all the undeveloped property continues to pay property taxes, which go directly to the city, county and state. The developed property within the area also continues to pay property taxes to the city, county and state – just as always. As the undeveloped property develops, and more property taxes are collected, the incremental change in taxes flows through the county, into the developer’s loan.
A note worth emphasizing: the developer gets a loan from the bank of their choosing for required public improvements. If the property fails to develop or the area does not develop in a way that satisfies the loan requirements, the city is not on the hook—the developer is. The city is at 0% risk in this instance.
Tax increment financing arrangements can last up to 20 years, but in Rapid City they are typically paid off closer to the 10-year mark.
The opponents of tax increment financing falsely believe their property taxes will go up as a result.
They also falsely believe that TIFs are a government subsidy. This is not so, as the public infrastructure being constructed will belong to the government and the citizens within that government’s jurisdiction. The infrastructure will not belong to the developer.
There is a great amount of false information swirling about how tax increment financing hurts the taxpayer. The only people that it hurts are those that hate government and think it’s unfair for “rich developers” to have any financial tools available to them. They also wish to resist expansion. If you ask me, it’s a liberal mindset recast as a conservative complaint.
At this point, the usual suspects are gathering signatures and misinforming potential voters about the issue. A special election on this issue will cost voters around $100,000. That’s exactly $100,000 more than it will cost voters if the Liberty Land tax increment financing district is approved and moves forward.
Please get your information from reliable sources, and not the group of people who protest everything in our community.
Steve Allender served as Mayor of Rapid City from 2015-2023
Here’s a small example of someone who’s apparently angry about something they know little about. All too common in this world overloaded with too much information:
He’s concerned that Rapid City’s “7% Vision Fund tax” needs to be done away with – and of course the roads fixed to perfection.
Well, if the Vision Fund tax was 7%, I would agree it needs to be eliminated. But it’s not – it is 1/2 of one percent. That’s .5% not 7%. It’s 1/2 of .01 cent, not 7 cents on the dollar. So how did this person get it so wrong? How did they inflate the tax by 1300%? The answer seems obvious.
This person is either uninformed or misinformed. If they are uninformed, they used their ignorance of the issue to lash out publicly… to vent unintelligibly. The anonymous Two Cents forum attracts such comments, as do other anonymous social media forums. But this person is in good company:
Recently President Trump announced that prescription drug prices were going to be reduced by “1000%, 1100%, 1200%, 1300%, 1400%” and ” not 30 or 40 or 50%, but numbers the likes of which you’ve never even dreamed of before.”
Well, he’s right about one thing, I have never dreamt of the pharmacy paying me to get a prescription filled. If you think about it:
A prescription that costs $50, if offered at 50% off would cost $25.00. If offered at 100% off would be free. If offered at 1400% off …… the cost would be -$650. Thats negative $650. In other words, the pharmacy would owe you $650! So where did the President come up with these figures? Who knows, but what is truly shocking is that people defended him on social media. One commenter posted “Nobody have calculators on their phone? …. 100-1000% = 10.”
I asked ChatGPT to explain how something could be reduced by 1000%. The response was: “1000% off is mathematical absurdity” and further “any claim of 1000% off is either a joke, a mistake or marketing nonsense.”
So why would people believe things like this? Why does the person believe the Vision tax is 7%? This is the problem without a solution, but the internet obviously has undue influence or is taking the place of people using their own brains to form opinions.
It is estimated that 20% of all social media interactions are the doing of Bots (software that performs automated tasks). So when internet ramblings occur, and people blindly believe what they read or hear, then people are misinformed. It is also estimated that in 10 years, as much as 70% of social media interactions will be bots. The question need to ask yourself is: why are the bots posting on social media?
A 2023 paper from the University of Southern California projected that if current bot development trends continue, bot posts will outnumber human posts by 2030.
Will the internet ever lose credibility? I doubt it. Because the chronically uninformed are always seeking to be informed and misinformation satisfies that – especially if they can blab on about it, in an anonymous platform.
The internet is an excellent place to acquire knowledge and find soluti0ns to problems, but great care must be used, in other words one must still use their brain to vet that information.
Yesterday, the Rapid City Police Department released crime and activity data within Rapid City’s jurisdiction. They were happy to report that 2024 is consistent with a recent downward trend in crime.
Surprisingly, the RCPD received negative feedback from social media users, some of whom expressed disbelief, with some even accusing the department of lying about the crime trends.
But is it surprising? Unfortunately not.
I have yet to find anyone who claims 2020 was the country’s best year on record; conversely, many claim it was the worst. There’s no doubt about it—2020 brought many challenges, but perhaps none as significant as those related to distrust of government and, more accurately, wholesale cynicism.
Part of me understands why people might have a hard time believing that crime can be down. During a simpler time, prior to every family having internet access, there was limited space for news coverage—a limited number of pages in the newspaper and a limited number of stories that could run in a half-hour news program.
Today, the capacity for news (and I use that term lightly) to reach your TV, computer or handheld device is virtually limitless. You have the opportunity to consume more news today than ever before. Much of this news is negative in nature: such as crime in the city or political division. This not necessarily good for you.
Based on 2020 and the few years following, many perceive that the world is well on its way to “Hell in a handbasket.” When data, such as that released by the RCPD, conflicts with the cynic’s perception, they may choose perception over reality. I believe this is a psychological misstep and the fuel that feeds rumors and conspiracy theories.
Keep this in mind: your perception is filtered through your many biases. Reality—in this case, data from reliable sources—has no filters and is presented to you as a matter of fact. Not everyone is not lying to you.
Believe it or not, crime is trending downward. People in Rapid City are blessed with highly professional law enforcement agencies, including the Rapid City Police Department, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, as well as other state and federal agencies.
If you want to learn more about crime in your city, perhaps you could become a part of the solution. There are always job openings within law enforcement organizations, and I know from experience they would welcome your interest and application. At the very least, consider enrolling in the RCPD’s Citizens Police Academy. There, you will get an in-depth look at the problems they face, behind-the-scenes operations and many other interesting aspects of the law enforcement profession.
Until then, the men and women who are giving the best years of their lives to protect you and your loved ones deserve your support.
During the March 6th Rapid City Council meeting, a council member presented a resolution to oppose the newly proposed social studies standards for the K-12 public school system. The standards are being proposed through the governor’s administration.
A City Council resolution in this matter is merely a statement expressing the City Council’s position on an issue. It’s not law; it carries no procedural or policy weight.
After several public comments asking for the resolution to be passed, and after roughly half the city council making comments, the council deadlocked on the issue, with a 5 to 5 tie. In this case, the mayor becomes the tiebreaker and I voted to pass the resolution. Prior to doing so, I made a five-minute speech, which has earned me some hate mail. One of them is below:
Degenerate scum? I beg to differ. Everything else? I also beg to differ. No facts here, just hate.
The proposed social studies curriculum standards should be rejected. The standards are not realistic. They are based on political idealism as opposed to the science and practice of educating young human beings.
It should be noted that the current social studies standards are a product of the South Dakota Social Studies Content Standards Revision Committee of 2014. That committee consisted of 35 individuals, 31 of which were educators. In other words, 88.5% of the committee were educators.
The Social Studies Standards Revision Commission, responsible for the proposed standards, consists of 16 individuals, only 4 of which are current or retired educators. In other words, 25% of this commission are educators.
Below is just one example of the proposed history standards for a first-grade student- a six or seven-year-old human being:
Although the standards seem to me to be ridiculous from an academic standpoint, they do not have the endorsement of the people who are actually trained how to teach your children.
But there is even a dumber part to this whole story, which is of course, that social studies are not a part of the standardized testing. This means, there will be no accurate measure that the standards are being implemented or if they are being absorbed by the student. So what’s the point of it all? Political gamesmanship is my best guess, but you are entitled to your own opinion.
As a Republican and as a public servant of 40 years, it appears a main emphasis within the proposed social studies standards has to do with protecting America from liberals. The weapons being used in this political war are teachers and students. Looking to politically suitable advisors rather than certified and experienced educators is folly and there is evidence this is counterproductive to Conservative Republican values.
During World War II, there was a study of 5.2 million draftees. It was determined that 36% of the draftees were unfit for military service and were therefore rejected. In a later study, it was learned that many of the rejected draftees had suffered from ailments that were brought on by malnutrition. If you think about it, the draftees were toddlers or grade school kids when the Depression started.
In 1945, President Truman started the school lunch program, as a result of the draftee study. So, pay attention to this: the government identified the problem and implemented a solution.
In a 2009 report, it was determined that 75% of Americans aged 17 to 24 we’re unfit for military service. More recently that number is reported to be 77%, but discussing this with Armed Forces leaders, they suggest it is now 80%.
Put another way, of the 36 million Americans between 17 and 24, 28 million of them couldn’t serve if they wanted to. The primary reasons? NOT Malnutrition. Obesity, poor education such as basic math and reading skills, and mental and physical conditions that would prevent them from serving. The military branches are drastically short of their recruiting goals.
This is fast becoming a national security issue.
A group of 90 former generals, admirals, other officers and senior enlisted personnel, agree that early childhood education is the answer. So again, the government has identified a problem, but where is the solution? Lost in the political war that rages on in this country, that’s where.
South Dakota is one of just a few states that will not commit to early childhood education programming, even though there is ample funding for it. Ironically, people of the same political persuasion that support a strong military do not support early childhood education or other programs that will keep America’s kids healthy and smart and able to serve. If South Dakota is so concerned with our kid’s educations, why not start with three-year-olds? There’s a lack of understanding that may be due to hyper-political rhetoric resulting in plugged ears and closed minds.
This too, divides us.
The division of America will not make us stronger. It will only make us weaker and make no mistake: it will please our foreign enemies. Extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing politicians are doing everything within their power to create two Americas: The Un-united States.
And I assume most folks are going to sit by and watch it happen. Some people will throw their hands up and refuse to vote because of perceived disenfranchisement, while some will think of the division as progress. In the end, we all lose.
I currently serve as the mayor in a non-partisan government organization. The non-partisan feature is the only thing that appealed to me when I made the decision to run for office. The problems in our communities will never be solved only from the Republican or Democrat handbook. Problem-solving requires ingenuity, flexibility and cooperation.
Causing problems on the other hand, requires nothing other than ignorance.
Our communities are divided: politics, gender, capitalism, socialism, and the list goes on. One major cause is the unwillingness of people to seek out facts.
Click here to check out the editorial I wrote for today’s Rapid City Journal. The subject of the editorial is only one of many false narratives floating around City Hall today.
This division will continue as long as facts are drowned out by rumors and innuendo in public forums.
Our communities are divided: politics, gender, capitalism, socialism, and the list goes on. One major cause is the unwillingness of people to seek out facts.
The Other 98 Cents 