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•  Along with education, job training and wage initiataives, Hunhoff added that many young people also feel there's an intolerance for diversity in the state that discourages some from wanting to locate here.
•  "You and I know that South Dakotans are among the friendliest and most neighborly people in the nation, but sometimes we send the wrong signals on issues pertaining to race, gender and the poor so people get a mistaken impression of our good state."
•  Hunhoff and Frerichs said their caucuses have been advocating greater attention on education and "school to work" initiatives for many years, and they look forward to working with the Daugaard administration and their Republican colleagues on restoring school funding, health care expansion and improving wages.
•  Here are some of the proposals being advanced:
• • Medicaid Expansion
• This would allow the working poor to improve their health care, reduce the number of sick days taken, lessen the potential of medical bankruptcy, and greatly reduce charity care.  It would infuse the state's economy with millions of dollars and have an estimated return on investment of 182-to-1. This is the most important workforce development initiative.
• • Minimum Wage
• Citizens spearheaded the Initiative which will appear on the general election ballot in Nov. of 2014; raising the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour.
• • Minimum Wage for State Contracts
• The recently announced $10.10 minimum wage for federal contracts should be matched by the same wage for state contracts.
• • K-12 Funding
• Adequate funding of education is the most fundamental and most successful form of economic development. We must have a plan to restore funding to pre-2011 levels.
• • Expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship
• Our proposal would allow students attending SD high schools with residency in a border states to qualify for the Opportunity Scholarship. Additionally, Democratic Legislators have led efforts to make sure that Career and Technical Education (CTE) has been included in electives which allow students to qualify for the Opportunity Scholarship.
• • Expansion of Needs Based Post-Secondary Scholarship
• SD was the last state to establish a needs-based scholarship. This happened in

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