RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – This week, Dusty Johnson announced his “Strong Schools” Plan to improve education in South Dakota.

Johnson said over the last ten years in South Dakota, student test scores have been trending down and there needs to be a bold vision for the future of state education.

“Last week in the budget address, we did not hear a bold vision from the governor,” said Johnson. “In fact, for the first time in state history, he announced K-12 education would not be the top investment for state government.”

As part of the three pillars of his new plan, Johnson wants to restore K-12 as the state’s top budget priority. He proposes doing this via priority-based budgeting.

Another pillar in the initiative includes improving reading and math scores throughout the state.

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, when compared to 2022, South Dakota reading scores dropped for both 4th and 8th graders in 2024. But math scores stayed the same for 8th graders with 4th graders experiencing a slight improvement.

Johnson wants to improve these scores by working closely with families and educators, especially at the grade school and middle school levels.

“As Governor, I’ll be directly involved with convening this state-wide conversation to develop a detailed plan to implement the best practices of states that have already gotten this done,” said Johnson.

The gubernatorial candidate said states like Mississippi have done great reforms in education and are seeing a turnaround in test scores.

“They’ve done that through far more proactive policies related to promotion and retention to students, the science of reading, Phonics,” said Johnson.

The plan would also allow skilled trade courses to count towards the math and science requirements for graduation.

“I think that’s going to unlock a lot more good paying jobs in this state, it’s going to close that skills gap that we see,” said Johnson.

Johnson said he spoke to many parents and educators in the last few weeks and said not one of them thought they’d seen enough leadership in the last year, at the state level, regarding the direction the South Dakota education system needs to go.

In a statement from Governor Larry Rhoden’s Director of Communications Ian Fury, quote, “DC spending is out of control and South Dakota is willing to do our part to take more of the burden of costs like Medicaid, but that’s why there’s no additional money available for K-12.”

Fury said, “Over the Noem-Rhoden Administration (including this year), K-12 funding has increased by 6.2% more than the statutory requirement; Congress has shifted the burden for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and others onto the states; In particular, the feds have shifted Medicaid funding onto South Dakota because our economy is so strong.”

He added “the Noem-Rhoden Administration made a huge investment in Science of Reading, and we’ll start to see reading scores come up as a result — and we’re actively redoing the math standards to make it easier for parents to help their kids learn math.”

Fury said, “serious leadership means telling people the truth — even when it’s hard — not just what sounds good in a campaign plan. Unlike Congress, SD has to actually balance our budget. Instead of taking political potshots, South Dakota’s congressman should focus on getting DC’s spending problem under control.”