How SD Board of Tech Ed plans to keep its four technical colleges affordable through 2026

The South Dakota Board of Technical Education approved three new performance indicators and a fiscal year 2026 budget in its meeting on Thursday afternoon.

The three new performance indicators in attainment, affordability and alignment were developed by an institutional effectiveness task force with a representative from each of the state’s four technical colleges, and include:

1. Attainment: Increasing the number of South Dakotans who attain high-quality postsecondary credentials by producing 3,001 credential completers per year by 2030.
2. Affordability: Ensuring that technical education in South Dakota is affordable and offers a positive return on investment by maintaining a 5.0 or lower cost to earnings premium for every associate of applied science program in the system by 2030.
3. Alignment: Preparing learners and graduates for meaningful employment and continued education opportunities by increasing the year five in-state placement rate to 75% by 2030.

The technical college system produced an average of 2,440 graduates each year between 2019 and 2023, and is projected to produce as many as 2,760 graduates each year by 2030, according to an appendix presented to the board. To meet the attainment goal, the technical college system will have to achieve an annual growth rate of 3%.

Board members also OK'ed the budget request from the SDBOTE office, which Director Nick Wendell will submit to the Bureau of Finance and Management (BFM) in August. After that, he said he will meet with BFM officials and Gov. Kristi Noem’s office about the request in September, and hear more about it in Noem's budget address in December.

Budget requests for the fiscal year running July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 include:

• $7,956.80 for the per-student allocation, up from $6,232.68 last fiscal year. This would total more than $46.5 million for the system, including to cover $9 million in ongoing equipment support.
• $3.3 million in maintenance & repair funding to keep up with rising costs for maintenance and repair on each campus. This is an increase of $1.5 million from the last fiscal year.
• More than $2 million in bonding support for debt service, an increase of $135,907 from the last fiscal year.
• $2.2 million in tuition assistance from the state, an increase of $526,950 from the last fiscal year.

The SDBOTE has implemented a tuition and fee freeze in the 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years, but will need to consider an increase to the state tuition rate in the academic year 2025-2026 to keep the salary policy in line with inflation. The SDBOTE has received about $10 per credit since fiscal year 2017 for tuition assistance, and recommends increasing to $13 per credit for the next fiscal year.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: How SD Board of Tech Ed plans to keep its four technical colleges affordable through 2026