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SAI Weekly Legislative Update – January 17
Monday of this week was Day 1 of the 110 day Legislative session. There were several procedural items that occurred, as well as presentations by the Supreme Court and the Iowa National Guard. As always, Governor Reynolds presented the Condition of the State Address on Tuesday evening. Regarding education, she had several proposals that you can review here. (scroll down to page 30) To highlight a few of those:
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A grant program to assist with districts and community partners to develop collaborations regarding Pre-School and child care.
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Math Counts – A proposed program aimed at improving math assessment scores. It could mirror what is currently happening with Literacy, with individualized student plans and teacher training.
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Requiring districts to develop a Cell phone/device policy that restricts usage during instructional time.
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Requiring all graduates to complete/pass a Civics exam.
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Establishing a risk pool to assist districts with funding for out of state placements.
We believe that the grant program can be very beneficial and will assist many parents in balancing Pre-K instruction and child care. We do want to continue conversations about expanding Pre-K programs in all areas of iowa. The risk pool is a great idea and could help some districts to reduce their special education deficits. A reminder that all of these are proposals only, and the details will be in the bills that will be filed at some point.
In addition, the Governor’s budget includes $14 million earmarked for improving salaries of support staff (a good thing), but proposes only a 2% increase in SSA. This last number came as a disappointment to us, and we are hopeful that we can work with the legislature on that.
As far as legislative activity, both the House and Senate Education committees met this week, but there was no action and very little discussion. It was mainly a formality, with work expected to start in earnest next week.
We have been told that there would be a major decrease in the number of education bills in this session. However, as of this writing there had been 25 (or so) bills filed in basically 3 days, that were directly linked to education policy and process. They include things like: school start date, new grant programs for school security, open enrollment, immunization info, and more. We are assuming that they will start subcommittees next week on some of these.
What can I do to help? I hear that often from administrators and there are always actions that could help. For this week (and probably for several weeks) make a point to communicate with your legislators regarding your district’s situation around your inability to find staff to fill positions. What positions are open in your district? (teachers and all support staff) How many positions are there? What does your district do to make up for those open positions (teachers using prep periods, administrators driving buses, teachers with much larger class sizes/caseloads, dropping courses, etc.) Let them know how it is affecting students directly, AND how it is affecting the staff that are there. Write, call, or go meet your legislator and EDUCATE them on what is really happening. Our legislators need to hear from you.
Keep up the great work that you do with kids and staff, and stay positive. Feel free to drop me an email if you have questions.
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