A Whole Lot of Nothing: South Dakota's Charter School Landscape

This hard-hitting report, the 47^th in a series, examines charter schooling in the Mount Rushmore state. As with its predecessors, the monograph provides an overview of the state’s charter movement and offers an initial assessment. Zeeball, a recent addition to the staff of the National Alliance for Awkwardly Named Education Trade Associations With Unfortunate Acronyms (NAANETAWUA), penned a few of these earlier studies himself, including Peaks & Valleys: Colorado’s Charter School Landscape and Let the Good Times Roll: Chartering in Puerto Rico. The usually mild-mannered author takes no prisoners, however, with this assessment of South Dakota’s charter terrain. “It’s just a big zero,” he writes in his introduction. “I spent three weeks crisscrossing the state and couldn’t find a single blooming charter school. Nor anyone who ever heard of the idea.” Tom-Tom Talk, co-director of Education Vector, explains the policy ramifications in the preface: “You don’t have to be a right-brained New Democrat to know that no charter law means no charter schools.” No kidding. You wouldn’t think it would take Zeeball and company 87 pages to reach that profound insight, though the map of South Dakota campgrounds that they supply may prove marginally useful to the leisure traveler. If you’re in a hurry, read the excellent Education Meek article by Derek Violin (“South Dakota Charters Found Wanting”); if you’re heading to Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, or the giant sculpture of Crazy Horse, however, you’ll want to read the whole report here.