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effort to improve student achievement on reservations. Native American children have a high school graduation rate of just 47 percent, she said.
• Sen. Larry Lucas, D-Mission, a retired teacher from the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, said the low graduation rate is due to social problems on reservations, not the quality of education. He said teachers in the Teach for America program usually leave the area after two years.
• The Senate eventually decided to provide $250,000 for a grant to Teach for America, with Bradford saying he would vote for the bill to support the overall education system.
• Senate Democratic Leader Jason Frerichs of Wilmot said the extra $6 million in state aid to school districts will help them recover from state budget cuts made two years when state spending had to be slashed to balance the budget during the recession.
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Economic development plan survives split attempt
DIRK LAMMERS,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A comprehensive bipartisan economic development plan intended to help recruit projects to South Dakota survived a Republican lawmaker's attempt to split the bill in five parts Tuesday.
• Rep. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, argued the Building South Dakota Fund measure is full of pork and covers too many unrelated topics. He asked the House to split the measure into five separate bills covering an economic development fund, housing, workforce education, the Governor's Office of Economic Development funding and English education.
• "All of these can be separated and stand alone," Nelson said.
• Lawmakers shot down that proposal before approving the comprehensive measure 56-13.
• Republicans and Democrats worked for the past two months to find a compromise to help level the playing field with other states that do a better job recruiting large projects.
• House Republican Leader David Lust of Rapid City said the bill incorporates components important to increasing jobs in South Dakota.
• "This is one framework that addresses economic development," Lust said. "They are intertwined, intermingled and interdependent."
• Lust chided Nelson for springing his motion on the House at the last minute amid a busy calendar in the last week of the legislative session. Nelson defended the (Continued on page 19)
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