IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

From the Des Moines Register: "Iowa will hike its sales tax by 1 cent
per dollar, replacing local-option sales taxes that each of Iowa's 99
counties collect for school infrastructure, under a bill signed into
law today by Gov. Chet Culver. For most Iowans, there will be no
out-of-pocket difference because one tax is simply replacing another
that they pay already. But the important difference between the tax is
one of financial fairness, advocates of the proposal have said." The
Iowa Legislature and Governor Chet Culver basically said "Screw The
Taxpayers" and took away the option of eliminating the tax in their
area if they felt the local school district was spending the money the
wrong way.

Labels: education, taxes

The Iowa Senate debated state education policy this evening for nearly
four hours. The grammar police in the crowd cringed when Senator Brad
Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale, declared his disgust with how the
debate "had went." Later, Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, the leader
of Democrats in the Senate, offered this critique of Zaun's speech.
"I've heard people tonight talk about what standards should be in the
core curriculum and I've heard the English language murdered on the
floor of the Senate here. 'What we done was'" Gronstal said, repeating
one of Zaun's mistakes. "What kind of language is that?"

Labels: education, Mike Gronstal

Governor Chet Culver spoke Wednesday morning to about two dozen
members of the Iowa State Education Association. The topic of the
local option sales tax came up during Culver's discussion with the
group. Culver indicated he was "open" to using the sales tax revenue
on teacher salaries and he urged the ISEA members to contact their
legislators and lobby on the issue. Local option sales taxes are
currently reserved for school infrastructure projects. Voters in each
of Iowa's 99 counties have approved a local option sales tax for
schools, but for a duration of 10 years. Legislators are mulling a
bill which would make permanent the penny sales tax -- statewide --
and distribute the money back to schools on a per pupil basis.

Labels: Chet_Culver, education

According to Iowa Radio, Governor Chet Culver says he's open to the
idea of letting schools use local sales tax revenue to pay for teacher
salaries. "If we can work on this in a bipartisan way and get some
consensus I'm confident we can use this as a vehicle to address a lot
of different needs and that might be one of them," Culver says. Voters
in each of Iowa's 99 counties have established a one-cent local option
sales tax over a decade to be used for school infrastructure. Culver
says he's willing to look at all options. "You know my goal, if you
will, is to make sure we're giving equal educational opportunities to
young people regardless of where they live," Culver says. "That fact
is we do have some concerns."

Labels: Chet_Culver, education

In today's Des Moines Register, there's a story about how Iowa's
Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, chided higher education
institutions into using more of their endowment funds to pay for
tuition for struggling students. It seems that they were listening, as
Yale has agreed to help "struggling" families making "as little" as
$180,000 per year. Excuse me, but since when are families making
$180,000 dollars per year "struggling?" And, if a family can't afford
to send their student to Yale, there are a lot of other fine
institutions that charge quite a bit less. The real crisis in
education in this country is the lack of federally backed student
loans for every student.

Labels: Charles Grassley, education

Tom Vilsack, who has been a very strong opponent of the bill for
years, wrote this great post about NCLB... 'As Congress resumes its work
after the August recess the nation's attention will be drawn to the
civil war in Iraq and who the next Attorney General ought to be.
However, perhaps the most important work for the long term good of the
nation may well be the debate over the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Efforts will be made to
improve on the effort of the Congress and the Bush administration when
5 years ago the Act was reauthorized under the banner of "No Child
Left Behind". Unfortunately, the last effort left not just our
children behind but our values as well. What is the purpose of public
education? Simple - every child should have what they need to realize
their talents and to contribute in a meaningful way to their community
and nation.'

Labels: education, Tom_Vilsack

That's what a crowd of school teachers in Storm Lake, Iowa, could have
told Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday night if they wanted to
play the role of class clowns. After all, that was what Clinton told a
debate moderator recently when he asked the crowd of candidates on
stage to reply to a question by raising their hands. But alas: it was
a missed opportunity for group sarcasm. Despite her complaints about
the dreaded show-of-hands questions during the debates, Clinton
apparently understands the value now. When the crowd is too big to get
detailed answers from everybody, well, why not save time by asking
them to raise their hands? She did it Tuesday by asking teachers to
raise their hands if they had ever had to spend their own money to buy
classroom supplies. Virtually every hand shot up. That's not a
surprise to anyone.

Labels: education, Hillary_Clinton

Governor Roy Romer is the National Chairman of Strong American Schools' ED in '08 campaign, the former Governor of Colorado, the former Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the former General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. For more information about their initiatives in Iowa, please check out their Iowa web page. For more information on their politically diverse Iowa leadership team, click here. Don: What is the Strong American Schools' ED in '08 Campaign and who was ultimately responsible for laying the foundation and groundwork for this cause to grow? Governor Roy Romer: Strong American Schools is a national public awareness and action campaign aimed at making education reform a top domestic policy priority through a vigorous discussion of the issue during the 2008 presidential election. The campaign is completely non-partisan - we don't support or oppose any candidate. We believe all candidates from every party should tell Americans how they plan to strengthen our country's schools.

Labels: education

It doesn't matter who is in charge in the Iowa General Assembly or Terrace Hill, public school teachers are going to get a raise. Nobody wants to see sub par education in this state and nobody wants to see good teachers leave the state because they can find better opportunities in another state. With that being said, its good to see teachers are getting a raise. However, the manner in which they receive the raise is not, in my opinion, kosher at all. The General Assembly has passed legislation that will make Iowa the absolute middle of the pack in terms of teacher's salaries (until other states up theirs again and the new rankings are established). That's all fine and dandy until you consider that the bill strips away a lot of authority and power away from the local school boards. I ran for school board in 2004 and while I narrowly lost, I still follow the ebbs and flows of what goes on in the Sheldon Communi ty School District. I don't always agree with the members or decisions, but I completely agree that those on the board should be the ones making the decisions and not legislators in Des Moines, bureaucrats in Des Moines, or worse yet elected officials and bureaucrats in Washington D.C.

Labels: education

(Guest column by Rep. Christopher Rants)
Preschool for all – sounds like a good concept, right? The Democrats have proposed legislation that they say offers the opportunity for all pre-kindergarten children to attend pre-school. Unfortunately, that's the rhetoric currently being offered by Democrats, when in reality what they are proposing is a bureaucratic nightmare filled with red tape and even more regulation. Here's why: Currently, private preschools are licensed under the DHS, and public preschools are pre-K programs that are offered by school districts. What Democrats are proposing is for kids who are watched by grandparents, friends and stay-at-home parents to have new requirements mandated upon them and administered through the Department of Ed.

Labels: Christopher Rants, education