State of South Dakota  
EIGHTY-SEVENTH SESSION
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2012  

497T0696   SENATE BILL   NO.  139  

Introduced by:    Senators Heineman, Adelstein, Johnston, Kraus, and Tidemann and Representatives Sly, Blake, Brunner, Dennert, Elliott, Fargen, Feickert, Gibson, Hawley, Hunhoff (Bernie), Iron Cloud III, Jones, Killer, Kirschman, Kloucek, Lucas, Miller, Olson (Betty), Schrempp, Sigdestad, Street, and Wismer
 

        FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to establish the Teach for America grant program within the Department of Education and to make an appropriation therefor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. There is hereby created a Teach for America grant program within the Department of Education. The purpose of the grant program is to provide funding to Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that provides alternative teacher recruitment and placement in public schools in which a majority of the students are from low-income households. Through the grant program, the state will partner with private contributors to fund an expansion of the Teach for America program in the state that will allow the number of teachers placed to grow from fifty-seven to one hundred by 2015. The expansion will allow Teach for America to positively impact two-thirds of the Native American students on reservations in the state and more than half of the Native American students statewide, and to strengthen its efforts to improve the academic achievement of low-income, Native American students and to increase the educational opportunities afforded them.
    Funding through the grant program shall be provided to Teach for America over a period of four fiscal years beginning on July 1, 2012. The amount of the grants provided pursuant to this Act shall be based upon the amount of matching funds received by Teach for America from private contributors, but the total amount of all grants provided may not exceed the total amount of money appropriated for the grant fund.
    Section 2. For each fiscal year of the grant program established in section 1 of this Act, the secretary of education shall submit a report to the Governor and to the Legislature that provides the following information:
            (1)    The amount of grant program funds provided to Teach for America for that fiscal year;
            (2)    The amount of matching funds provided to Teach for America for that fiscal year from private contributors;
            (3)    The progress of Teach for America's expansion efforts in South Dakota, including the number of teachers placed and the number of students impacted; and
            (4)    The results that Teach for America is achieving in the state in closing the achievement gap, providing enhanced educational opportunities, preparing students for higher education, and in meeting any other goals established by the organization.
    Section 3. There is hereby appropriated from the general fund the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, to the Department of Education to fund the Teach for America grant program established pursuant to this Act.
    Section 4. The secretary of education shall approve vouchers and the state auditor shall draw warrants to pay expenditures authorized by this Act.