Running a construction company in the Sioux Falls area means Kari Karst is already short of workers.

But South Dakota’s English-only law only adds to her workforce problems.

Her company, Dell Rapids-based BX Civil and Construction, depends on immigrants to fill road crews up and down the highways of eastern South Dakota.

Getting them a driver's license, however, isn't always easy.

“If we could remove one barrier, that would definitely help,” Karst said.

Construction industry leaders in the Sioux Falls area want to change the state’s driving laws to make it easier for Spanish speakers to get behind the wheel. Language restrictions have created a drag on the workforce in a fast-growing industry that also drives the growth of the state’s largest city.

Most states offer driving tests in different languages. South Dakota does not.

State law requires all government documents to be published in English, and officials extend the rule to both the written and skills sections of the driving exam. Non-English speakers can bring an interpreter to the written test, but they are in charge of finding, hiring and paying for the service, said Jenna Howell, an attorney for the state Department of Public Safety.

“The state does not provide that,” Howell said.

The skills test is only offered in English.

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Business leaders in Sioux Falls’ construction industry are targeting the law for potential revision.

Construction is a top employer in the four-county metro area, and the industry adds hundreds of workers each year as builders strive to keep up with demands for growth. Contractors compete with the retail and food service industries for a limited pool of workers.

Immigrant labor is “hugely important” to make up the difference, said Bryce Healy, executive director of the building chapter of Associated General Contractors-South Dakota.

“Every able-bodied person is a potential employee,” Healy said.

In an attempt to address the shortage, Southeast Technical Institute organized an ad hoc committee of industry leaders to figure out how to connect the construction and manufacturing industries with potential workers who don’t have a college degree.

The committee came out of an industry breakfast the tech school hosted a few months back, said Tom Kelley, who chairs the group. Kelley is president of Gage Brothers Concrete Products.

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He and other members of the committee have looked at a number of ways to alleviate workforce problems, including applying for workforce grants, lowering the age restrictions on apprenticeships and doing more advocacy work at local middle schools.

The state’s English-only driving exams seemed like an obvious problem in need of addressing, Kelley said.

“I think it’s sad in a way because that’s not the world we live in,” Kelley said.

BX Civil and Construction employs about 100 people. Of those who work in the field, on roads and highways near Sioux Falls and Brookings and other communities, about 60 percent are Hispanic, Karst said.

A non-commercial license is vital for getting from job to job, but the company is also in dire need of more workers with a commercial driver’s license, which comes with even more testing.

For an industry struggling to fill crews, allowing driving exams in Spanish would in part allow employers to better support those Sioux Falls residents who are willing to do the work, Karst said.

“I think we can get over that barrier with the employees,” Karst said.

But Howell said the state’s language requirements ensure drivers are able to interpret and obey the rules of the road.

“Correctly interpret and navigate traffic signs and construction zones, and instructions given by workers and law enforcement officials,” Howell said.

Local schools offer proof that there needs to be a change, Kelley said.

The entirety of the metro area’s population, regardless of age, is 89 percent white. But the city’s youngest residents are more diverse. This trend is clear in Sioux Falls public schools, where diversity increases at the lower grade levels.

As a whole, the local schools are more diverse than the population they serve. About 30 percent are nonwhite or non-English speakers.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group among students, said Brian Maher, superintendent of the Sioux Falls School District.

“We can say we embrace diversity,” Maher said. “The question that I would have at this point is, do our actions back up our words?”

The state’s sweeping English-only law came up through the state Legislature and was signed by Gov. Bill Janklow in 1995.

Authors had no idea it would be applied to driving exams, said Mel Olson, a retired state senator who helped push through the proposal.

Recommendations were drafted at the committee level when lawmakers on the Senate State Affairs Committee resurrected a dead bill and swapped out old language for what would eventually become the English-only guidelines for state and local government.

The goal of the maneuver, called a "hoghouse amendment" in South Dakota legislative jargon, was to block an effort to print lengthy state government reference guides in Lakota – in addition to English – and save state agencies extra printing costs, Olson said.

“My experience in the Legislature is there’s a lot of legislative consequences that you hadn’t anticipated,” Olson said. “There was never any talk and never really any intention on prohibiting giving the driver’s license test in other languages.”

Unintended strings attached to the 1995 law are tugging on Sioux Falls’ increasingly tight workforce.

“These folks have families and have a job and they need to, of course, get to work,” Kelley said.

Martin Baez, 29, earned his commercial driver’s license shortly after starting at BX Civil and Construction. The California native spent much of his youth in Mexico. He helps other Spanish speakers prepare for state exams.

Sometimes, guys can’t get past the written test even though they know the rules of the road and are capable of driving, Baez said. That leaves them without options.

“Even to go get food,” Baez said. “Find a job.”

Immigrants who come to Sioux Falls often need a driver’s license to work, and usually, it’s before they have the time to become fluent enough in English to understand the paperwork involved, said Alex Ramirez, a community advocate who serves on the city’s human relations and affordable housing boards.

Ramirez has for years been trying to draw more attention to the state’s English-only law, which he said is also a civil rights problem.

“It is something that is not bothering people but making it difficult for immigrants,” Ramirez said.

His group Pulso Hispano has been translating documents and putting them on Facebook, and is also working with other agencies in housing and business to make more resources available to local Spanish speakers.

“Of course we want them to learn English,” Ramirez said. “We try not to judge people just on that.”

There’s no action plan yet for offering driving exams in Spanish.

Kelley said his ad hoc committee of industry representatives has been exploring the potential of working with lawmakers on a proposal.

“It doesn’t seem like that would be too huge of a hurdle to topple over,” Kelley said.