This week, we spent more time debating in the House and less time in committees. On Wednesday, we passed twenty-five bills with only two being considered controversial. However, we expect that the Education Reform bill will come to the floor early next week and there are certainly differing opinions on the most effective means of improving our schools for the kids they serve.
(PHOTO: “I outlined our ideas for education reform at a press conference on Thursday at the Capitol,” Steckman said.)
As ranking member on the Education committee, I am fully committed to encouraging the potential of every child in Iowa and making sure that each one has the skills necessary to land a good-paying job. My caucus advocates that we should personalize instruction for students, recruit and retain great teachers, engage more parents and put each student on a track for post-secondary education or skill-specific trades.
One of the common sense ways to do that is to improve literacy support for kids before they reach 3rd grade. Thus, we will be offering the following:
Expand statewide preschool from 10 to 15 hours
Reduce class size kindergarten through third grade to no more than 20 kids
Require kindergarten assessment for every child so that they get the immediate support they need.
Other proposals we intend to offer include encouraging more districts to offer AP classes, dedicating more resources to dropout prevention and making sure that funding for collaboration and teacher development actually gets to teachers.
While I am hopeful about education reform this year, I am deeply concerned about the commitment of the majority party to pay for these reforms. Right now, their budget has ZERO dollars set aside for school reform and recent history has included their proposal to eliminate preschool, the freezing of allowable growth and deep cuts to higher education.
With the bill up for debate next week, I hope that my constituents will share their ideas, thoughts and comments with me or by logging onto www.iowahouse.org/educationreform.
