A bill requiring the use of a cash option to attend school-related events narrowly advances in the state House Education Committee.
Opponents say it overreaches for its target goal.
Valley Springs Republican Rep. John Sjaarda is the bill’s prime sponsor. He said it’s an effort to keep schools assessable to all.
“It was brought to my attention last year some schools in the state were not allowing entrances to school events with cash payments," Sjaarda said. "In our increasingly digital world, it’s easy to assume everyone has access to credit cards, apps on their phones, or other cashless options, however this assumption overlooks a lot of people. If someone wants to pay with cash, they should have the right to do so. It is legal tender recognized by our government.”
The bill saw significant testimonial turnout for both proponents and opponents. Heath Larson represents the state Association of School Boards. He said these are problems that can easily be solved at the local level.
“I have two specific brief points," Larson said. "One, primarily, is this impedes local control and local governance of our school districts across our state. In addition, the bill includes and impacts schools that serve as community service facilities frankly for outside tournaments, organizations, etcetera that come in, and hampering that ability could be a little bit of a disconnect.”
Another opponent was the state Retailers Association. Nathan Sanderson is the group’s executive director.
“This is any activity that would occur on a Regental institution campus, on a tech school campus, or a high school," Sanderson said. "South Dakota Retailers Association has one example – operates the ServeSafe program. ServeSafe is food safety training, it’s required for restaurants and other folks that serve food. We would be subject to this provision that we would need to accept cash for this pre-registered event.”
The bill saw attempts at amendments, namely one that would limit the regulation to events earning less than $1,000. Those amendments were not placed into the bill in committee.