On April 12, 2024, Washington resident Richard Gilmore made comments to state Rep. Heather Hora and state Sen. Dawn Driscoll during a legislative forum at the Carona Historical Museum. (Karen McCain/Union)
KALONA — State Rep. Heather Hora and Sen. Dawn Driscoll fielded a number of questions Friday at the Washington Chamber of Commerce's last legislative forum of the year and this election cycle in Kalona. June, and maybe November.
Friday's forum was held on the heels of a major education bill that would set budgets for public schools, raise minimum salaries for teachers and make major changes to the local education agency system. It also happened just days before a House vote on House File 2586, a bill that would allow trained personnel to carry guns inside school buildings, is currently on the governor's desk. Another much-debated policy proposal to move the first day of school closer to the end of the Iowa State Fair also drew comments at the meeting.
Everyone agrees on the need for rural schools, but disagrees on how to support them.
The Iowa City Community School District voted unanimously in late March to close Hills Elementary School due to budget cuts, a move expected to save $1.6 million. Her 141-student building in southern Johnson County is part of the Hora District.
At least one school board member, Lisa Williams, criticized the council for the decision. She cited “chronic and persistent underfunding by the state” as the rationale for the cost-cutting closure, according to the Gazette.
Hora criticized the move at a forum last week. She and Driscoll attended a meeting with community members in the Hills shortly after the announcement to discuss alternatives that could keep the doors open, such as changing to a different district.
“The governor's priority is to revitalize rural Iowa, and I think it's essential that we have an elementary school in each rural town as part of revitalizing rural Iowa,” she said. “Our goal is for the elementary school to be community owned, which is what the Hills community wants.”
However, some are skeptical of such ideas.
ICCSD is the fifth largest school district in the state and serves Hills residents to Iowa City West High School, ranked No. 1 in the state by US & World News Report. Skeptics argue that keeping Hills open under a separate school district will undermine the ability of older students.
Disclosure: Karen McCain is a current employee of the Iowa City Community School District and former employee of Iowa City West High School.
Additionally, questions remain about how the building will be separated from the Iowa City district, which has not publicly discussed plans to sell the property.
“What are the practical benefits of sending Hills students to different communities?” asked one journalist. news, a Kalona-based paper covering Washington County and southern Johnson County. “We know Lone Tree can’t afford to build new buildings, and Highland and Mid-Prairie probably can’t afford to either.”
Hora said he doesn't know if neighboring school districts will be able to afford the building, but said he expects Hills students to open-enroll in Iowa City schools if deemed appropriate. Told.
She argued that other approaches would be better for other regions, such as the aforementioned rural areas and other approaches that could keep buildings open for public primary education.
“Some parents choose Highland over West High, and some parents choose Mid-Prairie,” she says. “I respect West High School, but there are some families who don't want their kids to go there. So it's great to give them the ability to go where they want to go.”
Lawmakers optimistic about AEA reform, some superintendents skeptical
The long-anticipated AEA review bill was signed into law on March 27th. The policy would give school districts more control over how to spend money that currently goes to AEA for general education and media services, and would allow them to seek out non-AEA providers instead. It would also give the district more control over the 10% of special education funds that currently automatically go to his AEA.
Lawmakers said the measure would require agencies to step up efforts and reduce the cost schools spend on services, without forcing changes if school officials are satisfied with their current services. said.
“We believe that competition will drive prices down,” Hora said. “Currently, the funds are not going to the schools, they are going directly to the AEA, so that will change. Schools have some control over the funds…The administrative costs of the AEA are huge. , we need to put that money back into the classroom and provide services to special education children in need.”
While some school district administrators have voiced support for the bill, others are concerned that it will enfranchise and deplete local schools.
Critics say larger school districts with bigger budgets and more resources will switch to high-quality private providers of AEA services and work with institutions that rely on the lost funding. It is argued that this could happen.
Washington State Superintendent Willie Stone said he “hopes (the Legislature) is right” about cutting costs, but there is little evidence to support that outcome.
“My biggest concern is the economies of scale once this is all said and done,” Washington State Superintendent Willie Stone said in an interview last month. “As a school district, we use AEA all the time for professional development purposes and to help our teachers improve. Now, if one district after another decides to withdraw from AEA, it will be privatized to some extent. It's possible, and that's my concern. Once it's privatized, prices don't usually go down.”
The local education agency reforms also support other education policies, including a 2.5% state aid rate that determines schools' annual budgets and a minimum starting salary for Iowa teachers backed by state funds to pay salaries through 2026. It was tied together.
School officials say they are grateful for the support, as rural areas struggle to hire educators, but some are concerned about whether they will be able to raise the funding they need in the future.
“We're getting a lot of questions about what happens after (2026),” Mid-Prairie Superintendent Brian Stone said. “We are currently acquiring additional his TSS funding to support that.”
Hora said there is a plan to cover that cash, and the funding will not be offset against other school funds.
“In the future, it will be incorporated into the formula,” she said. “But they have a plan for that…The governor was adamant about putting that money into the classroom and supporting it, and that's one of the ways we thought about making it happen. did.”
Community members are concerned about guns in schools
House File 2586 would allow trained personnel to carry guns in schools and require high schools in school districts with 8,000 or more students to hire school security guards unless they opt out. The bill would also create grants to help hire school security guards.
A Des Moines Register poll conducted shortly after January's Perry High School shooting found that 60% of Iowans supported carrying firearms in schools after teachers and other staff members had completed training. It turned out that they were in favor of allowing the
Republicans argue the measure would allow local schools to respond to similar threats without having to wait for police to respond miles away.
“This program is completely voluntary and if a school district wants this, the school board, the superintendent would have to vote on it,” Driscoll said. “These schools will now be able to offer this provision to their students at their own option.”
Others disagree.
“I'm really pissed off that we have teachers in our schools carrying guns,” said one audience member. When asked by lawmakers if similar measures have helped prevent school shootings in other states, Driscoll and Hora said, “Yes.” Not positive. ”
Conflicts of interest over new school start date
One of the bills Driscoll proposed this session would change the earliest start date for the school year from Aug. 23 to the Tuesday after the state fair. The currently mandated August start date was established in 2015 to prevent schools from drawing traffic away from the state fair.
Driscoll's bill died during the funnel period, but the start date change was later added to another bill to prevent schools from starting early and ending the school year.
“Many in my district have said every year that they want it to be held on Tuesday,” the senator said. “My particular bill died, but the language is still being thrown around.”
But tourism industry leaders say they hope the current start date remains.
Chelsea Lerud, executive director of Iowa Travel Industry Partners, said keeping the Aug. 23 rules in place will ensure maximum cash flow through the large state fair.
“Every day school starts earlier costs the state economy more than $22 million,” she says. “And that’s a loss of sales tax revenue that is so important to the service that we all love as residents of our state.”
Grace King of Cedar Rapids Gazette contributed to this report.
Comment: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
