Basketful of Bad Ideas

Generally speaking, this time of year isn't all that much fun. It's cold (boy is it ever cold), there is snow (oh, we have snow this year), and it gets dark early (at least by this point the days are starting to get a little longer). Each January in my first message to employees following the Christmas break, just like clockwork, they hear the same message from me: it's too cold and dark to do anything else; so we may as well buckle down and push student learning. I call this the 'long stretch', from January to spring break, and typically the part of the school year where we see the most student growth. Aside from that, there just isn't a whole lot of fun to be had!

Speaking of not much fun, another thing that happens this time of year is the legislative session. From January through roughly April each year, our legislators meet in Des Moines. In addition to holding my breath as I plow through snow drifts crossing Holmes Road, (hoping I don't get stuck at 4:30 in the morning while trying to decide whether or not we are going to have school on any given day of the winter); I hold my breath and brace myself for whatever crazy idea is going to be proposed in Des Moines. 

There have been no shortage of crazy ideas this year. A whole basketful of bad ideas if you ask me. Granted, each year we tend to see the same bills brought up for consideration. There seems to be sort of a rhythm to it, and then the sanity of each caucus prevents these bad ides from gaining traction. Unfortunately this year it appears as if the safety valves have come off and there is no stopping this freight train. 

If some of these proposals become law, it will end up being a very bad year for Iowa's public education system. But it won't just be this year; the implications will be far reaching into a distant future where our public school system is stripped of its resources and see them funneled to private and for profit corporations. The bill to which I am referring is labeled SF 159. 

This is an enormous piece of legislation that runs some 50 pages. It has 7 distinct divisions with policy proposals that will no doubt do harm to public schools, and includes fiscal implications that are not yet fully understood. The most onerous of these divisions are I and II, which deal with the implementation of a voucher system (Division I), and the ability to set up a charter school without the consent of the local school board (Division II). Proponents of this policy are quick to point out the limited nature of the policy and that it is targeted at schools deemed in need of comprehensive support as identified by the Every Student  Succeeds Act. In this case 34 schools, evenly split between urban and rural. Now, before you breathe a sigh of relief because Hudson isn't one of those schools let me say: not so fast. 

Imagine a snowball at the top of a hill. As it is pushed over the summit and rolls down the hill, it picks up speed and gets bigger. That is exactly what will happen here. Next year it will be expanded to even more schools and more state dollars will be funneled away from our public schools. In fact, that is exactly what has happened with the STO program (which are tax credits for non-public schools). What started out as a 'small' tax credit for private school tuition has grown, with millions more added each year. Any by the way, every state that has implemented a voucher system has started out small--and then it just rolls down the hill. 

In a typical year when such a large and paradigm shifting piece of legislation is proposed our legislators take their time, gather input from constituents and set up a subcommittee. During the subcommittee, they'll hear arguments for and against and then make a decision as to whether or not to advance it to the full committee. Now, it isn't uncommon for the subcommittee to advance what I'll call a 'toxic' bill, but once it gets to the full committee, rational minds prevail and it doesn't advance any further. That didn't happen in this case. In this instance, the omnibus bill was first introduced on January 20th. By January 28th, it had cleared the full Senate and was messaged to the House. Luckily it's future is less certain in this chamber. But the speed at which something this large and comprehensive moved is, well, incomprehensible. Lightspeed in any year. Mind boggling when one stops to consider the ramifications of this legislation (and I haven't even mentioned any of the other Divisions). 

While this was going on and moving at such a rapid pace, it was interesting to note that Supplemental State Aid (SSA), the number with which we use to plan school budgets, wasn't even being discussed. The number that the law requires to be set within 30 days of the release of the governor's budget targets. Now, frankly it is no surprise SSA hadn't been set and that we once again missed the legally mandated deadline for approval. After all we miss the deadline year after year. But in this case, it has been proven that we can move quickly if needed.

It makes one wonder, why are public schools being punished? That is certainly what it feels like with a lot of these ideas. In another instance with the Senate SSA bill, a provision was included that would award school districts with a supplemental appropriation if they had been in school full time since the beginning of the school year. While great news for us, perhaps not so much for others. One proposal would even penalize schools who operated a hybrid model even if they were in compliance with the governor's proclamation. 

All of our public schools have worked hard over the last year to do the very best they can not only for their students, but the communities they serve. While I may strongly disagree with some of the decisions that have been made by some of my counterparts around the stated, I do believe they did so with pure intentions. However, implementing policies with such austere provisions certainly seems to be the wrong approach, particularly when so many school districts played by the rules and followed the law.