Secretary's Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer
Department of Education

Walking the talk

In South Dakota, we are fortunate to have good support of our educational programs. Each year, the legislature spends a majority of the session deciding how much money will be distributed to schools. However, as you survey the national landscape, the private sector is getting more involved in the funding of education programs. A recent report from American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research noted that about $2.5 billion a year is contributed to public education from the private sector. An estimated 4/5ths of school administrators said that they had received support from individual businesses – a greater proportion than was received from parent organizations, education foundations and local non-profits.

South Dakota enjoys strong support from our private sector as well. In this column, I am going to feature one business that has demonstrated a strong commitment to the public education system in our state. Over time, Citibank has shown that its leadership understands the need for public-private partnerships in education. When you examine the Citibank track record of support, you will arrive at a total of about $5.5 million contributed to South Dakota education. A large part of that is the $4.2 million that has essentially funded the first two years of the South Dakota Classroom Connections program. With that contribution, nearly 10,000 students have access to 21st century tools in their education program.

Citibank is also involved in many other projects that have had a very positive impact on schools in our state. Here are some examples of Citibank’s educational commitment.

• Classroom Inc. is a program initiated by Citibank. This program is a computer simulation project that introduces secondary students to real work environments.

• Teacher Scholarships – Citibank has offered more than 100 scholarships for junior education majors at our public, private and tribal universities who plan to teach in South Dakota. More than $350,000 has been donated to this scholarship program.

• Teach for America – Citibank has been a primary sponsor for the TFA program that provides much needed classroom teachers in our schools in Indian Country.

• Junior Achievement – Since 1981, nearly $200,000 has been donated to this important program in our state.

• Department of Education – Citibank has been generous in its support of department programs such as the Summer Achiever’s program, SD Indian Education Summit, SD Teacher of the Year Awards, the annual Teacher Leadership Conference, and the Academic Excellence Recognition program that recognizes the top 1 percent of our high school seniors.

• Mentoring – In addition to financial support, Citibank employees also give of their time. Citibank employees are paired with a student, and they meet for one hour per week during the school year. Each year, about 90 Citibank employees volunteer for this program in the Sioux Falls School District.

We appreciate the support of all private businesses in our state. We know that there are many others that contribute each year to local and state educational institutions. In this column, we salute Citibank for its support of education in South Dakota.