Senate Education committee passes different bill requiring schools take cash for events

Yahoo

13-02-2025

The Senate Education committee voted 4-3 to pass a bill Thursday morning to require schools accept cash for school-affiliated events.
Rapid City Republican Sen. Greg Blanc's Senate Bill 219 is very similar to Valley Springs Republican Rep. John Sjaarda's House Bill 1017, which failed in the House two weeks earlier. SB 219 will be heard in the Senate next week.
The bills came as a reaction to the Sioux Falls School District and other local school districts switching to a new system for cashless ticketing with Iowa-based company Bound.
More: Sioux Falls School District faces opposition to cashless ticketing system
The district said at the time it made the change for 'convenience, enhanced safety, efficiency and environmental impact,' and noted contactless payment has 'become the norm around the country.'
Blanc said he brought SB 219 to 'represent all people, especially those who are legitimately being disenfranchised.' He was supported by multiple people who said they were turned away from school events because they wanted to pay with cash, not a credit card.
Brandon resident Susan Luschas, and her daughter Soraya Luschas, who open enrolls to attend Lincoln High School, said since the cashless ticketing policy has taken effect, sometimes they're let into events for free, sometimes their cash is taken and they're let in, or sometimes they're turned away from events.
Sioux Falls resident Michele Klimek said she tried to work with the Sioux Falls School District office to pay in cash for a ticket for her daughter to attend a high school theater production but said the Instructional Planning Center was unable to provide it and redirected her to the school where the production would take place.
Klimek said she spoke with that high school's athletic director, who wrote down her name and the names of people who would join her at the play, and her entry fee was waived. She said she hasn't attended a local school event since because it was a 'hassle for all involved.'
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Fellow Sioux Falls resident Nikki McCormick said she and her husband were recently denied access to Howard Wood Field to watch their son, a junior in the Lincoln High School marching band, march on the field, because they wanted to pay in cash.
Spearfish resident Jennifer Baron said she didn't feel comfortable agreeing to the 'privacy and tracking policies' of an out-of-state company like Bound. She said it's an issue when she travels to Sioux Falls for school events, and worried it may affect Rapid City school events in the future.
Sam Nelson, lobbyist for the Sioux Falls School District, said one of the proponents who described their experiences with non-admission to an event was actually offered admission free of charge and they refused it. He didn't specify which of the proponents did this.
Nelson said SB 219 is an 'attempt to create an issue, and make something bigger than what it really was.' He added it is Sioux Falls' right not to change their policy, and said proponents have made no official request for the board to change its policy.
South Dakota High School Activities Association director Dan Swartos told the committee the SDHSAA accepts cash at all its events, like tournaments and championships at the end of each sports season, or for all-state band, jazz band and show choir events.
But he said the SDHSAA has considered going cashless because some events have $10,000 to $20,000 in starting cash in the cash box, and cashless systems have fewer opportunities for fraud, he added.
HB 1017 failed: South Dakota House fails to pass bill requiring cash for school events. But it could come back
He noted the SDHSAA has no control over what kind of ticketing systems larger venues like the Mitchell Corn Palace or Sanford Pentagon use for events, and said SDHSAA events already face competition for those spaces with bigger events. He said he was concerned the bill could lead to the SDHSAA losing out on those venues in the future.
Lobbyists with the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and South Dakota Retailers Association said much the same, and questioned on the day of school events at these larger venues, who would be responsible for taking the cash payments. They called it an imposition on private businesses.
Heath Larson with Associated School Boards of South Dakota said he opposed the bill from a 'local control perspective,' and asked that the committee let local school boards work through the process and work out any 'bugs' at the local level.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Committee passes new bill requiring schools take cash for events