I'm not sure you were aware of this, but there is an election coming up in a few weeks. If you don't have a plan to vote, I'll ask you to please reconsider. Voting is your right as a citizen, and heck it is your patriotic duty! Did you know that according to the US Census Bureau, in the 2016 general election only 61.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot? Luckily here in Iowa we have multiple options when it comes to voting: we can vote early, vote by mail (absentee), or vote in person on election day. Early voting in Iowa began on October 5th, so you can vote at anytime between now and election day. Ann and I voted by mail this past weekend. And please don't believe all the hype: voting is safe and voting is secure. You can even track the status of your ballot by checking in with the Iowa Secretary of State.
Anyway, as is always the case during a general election year all the focus and media attention is at the federal level, and in particular the top of the ticket. While no doubt important, it is of equal or even greater importance to make sure to pay attention to down ballot races. When you consider which has a greater impact on your day to day life, I think one could make a pretty strong argument that local and state government plays a much greater (and more significant role) in creating and enacting policy that will impact you on a personnel level. So in addition to voting for president and those who will represent us in Congress, don't forget about those who will be representing us in the statehouse. In our district, we'll be voting for our state representative and state senator. The state representative will serve a term of two years and the state senator will serve a term of four years. Those who serve in these roles will be positioned to inform and create policy that will impact your school district. In Hudson, the Board of Directors has outlined priorities that we believe are important matters of policy for the next legislative session. Please do your own homework to see where the candidates stand on these matters before casting your vote.
Supplemental State Aid This is perhaps the most significant of policy issues that is addressed annually by our state legislature. It is also supposed to be one of the first matters taken up when the legislative body convenes. Within the first thirty days of the governor's release of her budget recommendation the body is required to act by law. That hasn't happened in over a decade, and the governor's recommendation has been soundly ignored: despite the fact the general assembly and governor's mansion are all controlled by the same political party. Likewise, when viewing the totality of supplemental state aid against economic indicators, one could reasonably argue that supplemental state aid isn't keeping up with increased costs being borne by local school districts. The board supports timely and adequate supplemental state aid.
Increased Funding and Access for Preschool We thought we had a reasonable chance of seeing movement on this legislation last year. That is until COVID upended everything. Currently preschool students are weighted at .5 FTE of a regular student. Frankly that makes sense if schools continue to operate half day programs that only meet for ten hours of instruction per week. However, the value of early intervention and academic gains made by students over the course of their academic trajectory make the case that expanded access to full day preschools would be a great investment. At the same time, the board also supports eliminating the barrier that only allows 4 year old(s) one year of access. Some parents of children with 'late birthdays' are interested in an additional year of preschool as opposed to entering kindergarten. While we can currently allow this: we have to charge tuition.
Opposition to School Vouchers Programs that divert public money to private school operations not only reduce the amount of funding available to your local public school district, scholarly research suggests they are not any more effective than local public schools. In many instances, they don't perform as well. Furthermore, the proposals that have been discussed in Iowa don't require those private school enterprises to operate with the same level of fiscal transparency as public schools, often don't offer the same programmatic options, and have the ability to pick and choose who to admit. Our school board believes that any choice legislation must remain under the sole authority of the local school board.
Unfunded Mandates There are a lot of things that schools can do that frankly, are a pretty good idea. Additionally, because we have a captive audience and the operational infrastructure that other agencies don't, public schools often become the default social service agency. Again, these might be very good ideas, and can only be executed by an organization with the logistical mechanisms afforded to a school district. However, all of these great ideas cost money. The school board opposes any new mandates on schools without proper funding for implementation.
I am forwarding blog post via social media channels to our candidates for their review and hopeful response, which will be posted in the comment section of this blog. But no matter what, please remember to vote!
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