Teachers in South Dakota competed against each other in the first ever “Dash for Cash” event where they crawled on mats to try and grab as many dollar bills as possible to get money for their school or to buy classroom supplies.
According to the Argus Leader, ten teachers from Sioux Falls area schools competed in the event at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior ice hockey game on Saturday.
The aim of the game was to get as many dollar bills as possible within 5 minutes from a $5000 pile laid out on a mat on the ice skating rink at the Denny Sanford Premier Center. The money for the game was reportedly donated by CU Mortgage Direct.
“With everything that has gone on for the last couple of years with teachers and everything, we thought it was an awesome group thing to do for the teachers,” Ryan Knudson, Director of Business Development and Marketing for CU Mortgage Direct, said. “The teachers in this area, and any teacher, they deserve whatever the heck they get.”
Barry Longden, a teacher at Harrisburg High School who grabbed the most money from the pile, $616, said he plans to use it to buy more equipment for his 30-student-strong club.
“Getting that equipment for the kids is really just the big component of what gives them access to this because otherwise, it’s really accessible for most kids,” Longden said.
The American Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten called the game demeaning. “This just feels demeaning … teachers shouldn’t have to dash for dollars for classroom supplies,” she said. No doubt people probably intended it to be fun, but from the outside it feels terrible.”
South Dakotan teachers earned an average of $49,000 in 2020, according to South Dakota News Watch. The state ranks 49th in teacher salary in the United States.
