It is playoff season in the NFL and the Olympics are scheduled to start in just a few weeks. But the real action is at the state capitol where second session of the 89th general assembly began on January 10th. We'll spend the next several months advocating for legislation we believe will positively impact our K-12 public education system, and we'll also spend at least an equal; if not more time trying to prevent bad ideas from becoming law. There are 150 legislators from all over the state, each with their own ideas. Getting a majority of them to agree to a particular piece of legislation is always quite a chore and requires the finesse of constituents like each of us. As we go through this legislative session, I'll be sure to outline those policies that have potential of becoming law while at the same time providing clear examples of how that policy will impact us at the local level. From time to time I may have to call on you to help us advocate. While our legislators are used to hearing from folks in my chair, you can be assured they want to hear from you as well. Your voice will be very important in the coming months!
Even though we are now in the second week of the session, it has been relatively quite. Most of the time, we would have seen a flurry of bills introduced at this point. While there have been some, it hasn't been as many as expected. We can be assured that will change very quickly! Nevertheless, committees are still going through their organizational meetings and there were a lot of ceremonial events last week that are traditional with the start of a new session. Chief among them being the governor's Condition of the State address. Outside this, we have very little in terms of policy proposals. You can anticipate that will ramp up in the coming days as bills are filed!
To get us started, I thought it would be useful for you to understand what priorities the board has outlined for this legislative session.
First and probably most important is the budget. In Iowa schools, we rely on the legislature setting the supplemental state aid (SSA) figure as one of the first orders of business. SSA is the percentage by which the state cost per pupil grows annually. This number is one of the most critical needed as we begin budget work for the next fiscal year and by law is required to be set within 30 days of the Condition of the State address. There is a symbiotic relationship between the SSA number and property taxes, the higher the SSA number is, the lower property taxes will be (at least as it related to Hudson). We'll talk more about that number in the coming weeks, but the governor proposed a growth rate of 2.5%.
Equally important to us here in Hudson is funding that would provide access to preschool for both 4 and 5 year old students. Prior to this year, we have accommodated some 5 year old's in our preschool program with a couple of caveats: first, they have to pay tuition because the funding is only available for 4 year old's; and second, a 5 year old can't take the place of a 4 year old. Unfortunately this year we had to turn away quite a few 5 year old students because our program is full of other qualifying students. (For those legislators who might be paying attention, this could be one way to help alleviate the child care access problem. If these youngsters aren't in school, any guesses where they might be?)
Choice legislation seems to come up every year in the legislature. We advocate for educational systems where tax dollars are used to support the public school system. Only an adequately funded public school system can ensure that a quality school is available to every student in the state. Private schools can set their own admission standards and do not have to follow many of the same educational requirements as a public school. Perhaps most alarming, those schools do not have to follow the open meetings/open records laws, meaning the general public does not know where or how your tax dollars, aka, public money, is being spent.
Finally, if new responsibilities are assigned to the public school, we ask that they be properly funded. Oftentimes whenever a problem is uncovered in society, the natural response is to have the school district fix it. This leads to new mandates in our schools, all without ever taking away other requirements. Further adding to the dilemma is the failure to realize all of these initiatives come with a cost: either in time or in money. For that reason, we object to unfunded mandates.
Well, we are just short of two weeks into the session. Let the games begin!
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