The South Dakota state legislature is failing to override the governor’s three vetoes this session.
Lawmakers met Monday to reconsider two vetoes that change scholarship and tuition assistance programs in the state. They also fail to override a veto on a change to dates for pre-filing legislation.
Last week the governor vetoed Senate Bill 94, which changes the eligibility for home-schooled students to receive the Opportunity Scholarship.
The bill lowers the ACT score minimum for home schooled students from 28 to 24, before being considered for the scholarship.
Republican State Senator Jack Kolbeck says the point of the bill is not to lower standards for home-schooled students.
“The intention of this bill is to match the requirements outlined in state statute for public, private and home-schooled students, which is a 24 on the ACT and to complete the required courses,” Kolbeck says. “This bill does not add or subtract anything that is not required by law of all other students in the state. It seeks to create fairness so that home-schooled students are not held to a higher standard than all other students in our great state of South Dakota.”
Kolbeck says he estimates the change would result in a few home-schooled students getting the scholarship, with a cost of around $10,000.
However, in his veto letter, Governor Dennis Daugaard says all students are required to get a 28 on their ACT score, but students have the option to complete specific coursework and achieve a lower ACT score of 24. He says no one would have the ability to review course materials for home-schooled classes.
The override failed on a 21-10 vote.
The legislature also failed to get a two-thirds majority vote to override a veto on House Bill 1188, which requires postsecondary tuition assistance programs to set and track performance outcomes. Daugaard says he vetoed the bill because one legislature cannot bind the hands of a future legislature.
The governor also amended to bills with a style and form veto. The legislature went along with those changes.