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Statehouse News Week 3

January 26th, 2012

Property taxes, education reform and disabilities services delivery reform continue to be the focus of the legislative session.

Property tax reform….Iowans and local officials expressed deep concern about a Republican property tax plan in the House that would raise taxes on homeowners while reducing property taxes for businesses.  While everyone agrees commercial property taxes are too high, Democrats have crafted a bill that provides reduced property taxes for Iowa’s locally-owned main street businesses without raising taxes on homeowners.

Education reform: One of the Governor’s provisions discussed in subcommittee this week was that students would not be admitted to a teacher education program with a grade point average lower than a 3.0. On the surface this sounds good but here are my concerns:

  1. There is no evidence that a grade point average (GPA) leads to  good teachers. Many professionals have told me that they took challenging course work in college to expand their knowledge. These teachers learned a lot by challenging themselves, but were unable to maintain a 3.0 GPA.
  2. Many districts (Ames included) struggle to recruit minority teachers. Many inner-city schools are underfunded and struggle to recruit the best teachers. It is not uncommon for students who come from these underfunded schools to struggle a little in college. It is still not an indication that they would not be excellent teachers.
  3. Several of Iowa’s “Teachers of the Year” have reported that they would not have made it into the teacher education programs under this requirement.
  4. Once teachers enter the workforce, there are several research-based methods to help them be successful. One is a teacher mentor program and one is continuous professional development.

We all know that one of the keys to a successful education is a quality teacher in every classroom. The problem is how do we define ‘quality teacher?’  My research leads me to believe that requiring a 3.0 GPA will not lead to quality teachers.

I won’t support any initiative just because it “sounds good.” It should always be our goal to put great teachers in Iowa classrooms. However, when children are going to school with a toothache because they can’t afford a dentist, or are absent from school repeatedly due to an untreated mental health disorder, even the best teacher cannot perform a miracle. Both a quality teacher and a classroom full of young Iowans who are ready to learn is the key to success in education.

Disabilities services delivery reform …Work continues in a bi-partisan, bicameral effort on disabilities services delivery reform.  The bill will be filed next week.

Other news….

  1. National Guard tuition assistance: Since the session began three weeks ago, we have been pushing to take quick action on a bill to prevent tuition hikes on National Guard members in college this year.  The shortage in the National Guard tuition assistance program came about because 3,000 Iowans returned home last year after serving in Afghanistan; many of those returning soldiers went to school to upgrade their skills before re-entering the workforce.

The tuition benefit was promised to Iowa National Guard members when they signed up for duty, so the state has an obligation to fulfill that promise.  I am pleased that both the House and Senate have passed this appropriation bill and it is on its way to the Governor for his signature.

  1. Governor Branstad outlined a plan to find $50 million in efficiencies at the Department of Transportation and redirect it to rebuilding Iowa’s roads and bridges.
  2. The House approved a bill to require state agencies to produce a jobs impact statement when developing new rules or regulations.
  3. A bill introduced this week would give the children of police, fire fighters, and other public safety officials who are killed in the line of duty free health care and college tuition.
  4. A House subcommittee has approved a ban on red light and speeding cameras used in several communities across the state.  Local officials say the cameras have reduced crashes and saved lives. Opponents site lack of due process.

Quote of the week…Education is not filling a pail, but the lighting of a fire.–William Butler Yeats

 

 

January 26th, 2012 | Category: Budget, Education, Health care, Uncategorized | Comments are closed

Week Two Statehouse News

January 19th, 2012

Mental Health and Developmental Disability (MHDD) Service Delivery Redesign….Department of Human Services Director Chuck Palmer has given an overview of the MHDD redesign to both the Senate and House Human Resources Committees. The bill, based on the Iowa Department of Human Services’ recommendations, is a draft and will certainly change as it moves through subcommittee, committee and both the House and the Senate. It may be unprecedented, but the House and Senate are holding joint subcommittee meetings on this issue.

The issue that the counties have the most concern about is the development of a regional delivery system.  As we review a county vs. regional system, I can see advantages and disadvantages to both. Under the county system, I am concerned about uniformity of service delivery, the rights of people to access these services, and funding.

Briefly, here are my concerns on each of these areas:

  1. Uniformity of services:  Some counties provide services to adults only. There are broad differences in the services provided from county to county.  Income guidelines vary from county to county.
  2. Rights of people:  I don’t feel we have an adequate appeals process and dispute resolution process for insuring that people can adequately challenge decisions regarding the services they need.
  3. Funding:  On average, state dollars provide 60% of these services and property tax (county) dollars provide 40%. However, the mix of those dollars varies dramatically from county to county.  In Plymouth County, 18% of the dollars are county dollars and 81% are state dollars.  In Polk County, 21% are county dollars and 71% are state dollars.

My goal is to have a service delivery system that is uniform across the state, has equitable funding, and where people have better access. Mental Health and Developmental Disability Service Delivery Redesign is one of the largest issues we will address this session. I will continue to update you on the status as the session progresses. As always, I appreciate your input.

Iowa State University Student Ambassadors play an important role in the legislative process. Students from freshman to seniors, Democrat, Republican and no party develop a legislative agenda to lobby for in the Iowa Legislature. I am inspired by the work they do and their commitment.

In an effort to reduce student debt upon graduation, ISU Student Ambassadors have proposed the following:

  1.   Expand the Iowa Loan Forgiveness program to include public attorneys, teachers, nurses, public service employees and Iowa graduates who are living at 300% of the Federal Poverty Level.
  2.   Require all incoming first year students to Iowa Regents universities to take a short one credit course in financial  responsibility during their first academic year.
  3.   Require all Iowa Regents universities report five year graduation rates, in addition to the current four year and six yea  graduation rates.
  4. Require  the fundraising bodies of the Iowa Regents universities to ask all donors if  they would be willing to allow five percent of their donation to go to the scholarship fund of the respective university if said donation is not already  made for a scholarship fund.

I appreciate the hard work of these students; it is not easy to get such a diverse group to agree. I look forward to working with them to reduce student debt

Quote of the week:  Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person… Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world…Eleanor Roosevelt

 

 

January 19th, 2012 | Category: Health care, Statehouse News Letters | Comments are closed

Opening Days of 2012 Legislative Session

January 12th, 2012

As the legislature opens for the 2012 session, we are faced with three large issues with significant impact on Iowans:

  1. Property tax reform. HSB 500
  2. Mental Health/Developmental Disability/Brain Injury Services delivery reform. (bill not available at this time.)
  3. Education reform: HSB 517

I will be highlighting the progress of these issues in my newsletters throughout the session.

When the Governor first released his outline for education reform, I decided to meet with educators, administrators, school board members, support staff, principals, education researchers, parents and students. The common denominator of all of these meetings was the issue of poverty. Teachers tell stories of students who live in cars; inconsistently attend school and are more interested in the peanut butter sandwich that will be served at lunch than what is happening in the classroom.

Linda Darling-Hammond, Princeton Education Professor, was a speaker at the Governor’s summit last summer and cites inequities as a serious issue to be addressed in education reform:

“We have more children in poverty than any other industrialized nation. About one-quarter of our children are living in poverty and we have a more tattered safety net than other industrialized nations which routinely provide housing, healthcare and other fundamentals to make a life. In this country, more and more children are homeless and lack health care.”

In Iowa, 13.5% of our children are living in poverty and that rate is increasing at a faster rate than the national average ISU assistant professor Dave Peter’s Report on Children

Beyond poverty, schools are dealing with peer relations, mental health disorders, family issues, learning disabilities, developmental disabilities and let’s not forget that kids will just be kids.

Governor Branstad has taken on an enormous task of working to reform education and I applaud the goal to assure world class education for Iowa students. I will approach the governor’s reform with an open mind. However, after numerous meetings during the interim, I propose that we strengthen our safety net for Iowa children by increasing our commitment to the Family Investment Plan (FIP); expand our earned income tax credit to assist the working poor and work to assure that every child who comes to school is well fed and has a warm bed to sleep in every night. A strong safety net is important but I will continue to support Iowa’s locally-owned main street businesses to assist them to expand and create jobs.

Thanks to Joe Lynch, Sharon Gruber, Bob Rod, Susie Petra and all the other Story County residents who have come to visit me at the capitol this week. I look forward to seeing more constituents as the session progresses.

Opening days….The 2012 Legislative Session opened this week and I’m excited to be back at the State Capitol serving you in the Iowa House.  This year, my top priority is finding compromise to create jobs and grow Iowa’s economy so that all families can get ahead. We’re all tired of the partisan bickering and political games that have become standard in Washington and I’m going to do all I can to work with all of my colleagues in the Iowa House.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican idea or a Democratic idea, if it is a good idea.

Our job creation efforts should start with helping locally-owned  businesses grow by reducing property taxes and offering more technical and financial support.  We must continue to encourage growth in the renewable energy industry because those good-paying jobs can’t be shipped overseas.

Attracting and keeping good-paying jobs in Iowa for the future requires a highly-skilled workforce.  I’ll work to guarantee that every Iowan has access to quality and affordable education.  As we all know, it is time to reinvest in higher education.

Condition of the State & Judiciary….The Governor delivered the Condition of the State address in the House Chambers on Tuesday and I agree with his focus on job creation and improving our schools.  However, I was disappointed the Governor has no plan to reopen the workforce centers he closed last year.  I’m committed to reopening the centers to help Iowans learn new skills to land a good-paying job, while helping local businesses find workers. As the session unfolds, I’m confident we’ll be able to work through our differences and reach an agreement.

Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court Mark Cady gave the Condition of the Judiciary to a special joint session of the Iowa Legislature on Wednesday. He talked about Iowa’s top ranking as one of the most fair and impartial court systems in the nation. Additionally, he said the court has taken more steps to improve transparency by streaming Iowa Supreme Court oral arguments, making more court documents available online, and holding Supreme Court oral arguments across the state. Justice Cady spoke strongly that it is time to invest more resources into the court system as they are stretched as far as they can be. I have seen evidence of this in working with families who have had to access the courts and I will work toward sustainable funding for this important branch of government.

Quote of the session: “Everybody is a genious. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” –Albert Einstein

January 12th, 2012 | Category: Education, Uncategorized | Comments are closed
 
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