FROM THE DESK OF REPRESENTATIVE DE BOEF March 15, 2012
House Approves Education Reform The House considered and passed House File 2380, the Education Reform bill, on Wednesday after a long legislative day that ended up spanning two calendar days. The bill received nearly twelve hours of debate on 56 amendments on the bill and passed on a primarily partisan vote of 53 to 46. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting no. I struggled with how to vote on this bill. I agree with the premise that we need to improve the quality of our education system and the need to improve test scores. The big question is: do we improve education by increasing the state’s authority over education? Or will we see better results if we continue the Iowa tradition of local control, with incentives added to encourage innovative ideas-improving it by encouraging competition, academic achievement, & teacher rewards. Or if we improve support for local standards for each grade level, allowing discipline, retention and graduation requirements based on a local control driven model guided by state-wide standards? In the end my local control instincts won out, and I voted against the bill. Shane Vander Hart, a conservative blogger from Des Moines, was quoted in the Des Moines Register saying: “Right now, if a local board member is not accountable you can vote them out. Under this (bill), if the Department of Education makes a policy change that you don’t like, you can call your legislator, but you really lose that immediate control…. Your voice is lost.” Senate Education Committee Chairman Herman Quirmbach is quoted: “The Branstad proposal encroaches, not only on local control, but also on the Legislature’s power to set policy. He pointed to one section of the governor’s bill that would remove teaching standards from state law and instead direct the state board of education to set those standards by administrative rule—a clear example,” Quirmbach said, of the executive branch attempting to assume authority now vested with lawmakers. That proposal—plus the centralized teacher board—would shift key legislative and local functions to the state education bureaucracy,” said Quirmbach, DAmes. Both measures were removed from the Senate version of the bill, which has not drawn criticism from local-control advocates. “We want to maintain local discretion and we want to maintain the Legislature’s role where appropriate,” Quirmbach said. There are few times I agree with Sen. Quirmbach but this is one of them. House Republicans argued that beneath the primarily partisan vote was very much a bipartisan effort. Democrat members rose to speak about a number of portions of the bill they supported. There were 8 amendments accepted that were brought forward by the minority party. The entire process saw much collaboration between the two sides of the aisle. The final bill came before the full House after 5 subcommittees that spent over a dozen hours considering the bill, committee discussion that spanned 3 days and a public hearing before the legislature. I agree that some of the language that was of concern was removed. House Leaders will argue that the bill recognizes that one-size-fits-all education isn’t necessarily true, by expanding online learning opportunities, implementing a path to competency-
based education and strengthening charter schools; it helps put great teachers in front of all classrooms; it frees principals to lead by providing a path for delegating non-instructional duties to assistants; it develops stronger assessments to help determine where kids are and how they have grown; it strengthens early literacy initiatives by providing resources to get children reading by the end of third grade; it puts in place efforts and opportunities to increase innovation that can provide results; and it establishes several means to continue discussions on how to make our education system the best it can be for the future of Iowa’s children, they reported. The bill will travel to the Senate now for consideration. The Senate has been working on their own version of the Governor’s education reform proposal that is sitting before the body for consideration at any time. One argument that is being offered is so much of the money for education-currently about 4 billion dollars-is state money, so the state has an obligation to ensure that quality is maintained & to make sure an Iowa high school diploma means something. One concern I have is the issue that comes up repeatedly: that there is nothing in the bill that addresses school administrations, and improving some of the standards for them. Many people view the most important building block for good teachers and a strong education program is great administrators. Judy Hintz of Educational Resources Associates of Des Moines had an article in the Des Moines Register on March 7, where she said; Do teachers really have control over student academic gains? Hardly. Very poor curriculum, student behavior problems, family and administrative support or lack thereof, all come into play in student achievement. These are issues over which teachers have no control. What about the principal’s responsibility for academic achievement? Their positions should be similar to middle management. Aren’t they ultimately responsible for the functioning of their staff? Certainly, their incomes and job security should also reflect the school’s academic performance. Likewise, the superintendent of the district should be held accountable for his administrators and teachers. Perhaps his salary should be paid only on commission (percentile of students’ tested growth). Educational reform cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of the least in control, the teachers…. Previous movements, such as Head Start, special education, “whole language,” open classrooms, “everyday math,” to No Child Left Behind, have been miserable failures. This Iowa “educational overhaul” promises to be more of the same. Glass, Branstad and the educational summit participants will be long gone when this fails. The people of Iowa will be stuck again to pick up the pieces—and pay the cost. It is time to let all education, public and private schools, home-schoolers, tutors and learning centers become competitive. The dollars for each student will follow their educational choice. Competition is the surest and the fastest way to dig education out of the rubble. I reluctantly voted no on HF 2380, because I believe it does not meet this goal. Visitors at the capitol this week: Jeff Johnson of Sigourney, with Mid West One Bank, Burt Byers with East-Central Iowa Rural Electric, and Dave & Kris Maxwell from Gibson, candidate for House District 76. Marisue Hartung and 4 – H students from Marion & Poweshiek Co’s.
