From Senator Amanda Ragan –
One of the most rewarding things about being your State Senator is the conversations I have with young people who are getting involved in our democracy for the first time. Each year, I give students and teachers a firsthand look at how our laws are made when they visit the Statehouse. I also visit them in their local classrooms to see what they’re working on.
This fall is no exception. I’ll be visiting local classrooms to meet personally with young constituents, answer questions, share ideas and listen to concerns. It’s a great way to give students—the nation’s future leaders—a glimpse at how representative democracy works, and to let them know their ideas count.
I will be one of more than 1,300 state lawmakers who will join students in schools across the country. It’s all part of the Back to School Program sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Trust for Representative Democracy.
If you’d like me to come to your school this fall, please give me a call or send me an e-mail.
Boosting education and job training for a stronger Iowa future
With the start of a new school year, students of all ages are returning to Iowa classrooms in our K-12 schools, community colleges and universities.
Iowa has a tradition of educational excellence, something we build on each and every year in the Legislature. This year, we focused on improving education in ways that will help Iowans build a prosperous future for our state. They include:
• Providing more intensive science, technology, engineering and math education through a $4.7 million investment in STEM.
• Keeping tuition affordable at our community colleges, state universities and private colleges so all Iowa families can take advantage of the educational opportunities that lead to great jobs.
• Reducing Iowa’s skilled worker shortage with a $15 million investment in worker training that will help Iowans qualify for skilled job openings at local businesses.
We also voted to:
• Ensure Iowa kids are good readers by keeping class sizes small in kindergarten through third-grade so young students get the one-on-one time they need with their teachers. Plus, a new statewide Iowa reading research center will spread the best practices for teaching reading.
• Invest in education, research and training facilities at our community colleges and universities so they can continue preparing a highly skilled workforce.
• Continue our commitment to strong local schools by raising academic standards, increasing teacher and administrator effectiveness, and supporting innovative teaching. This is a good first step on education reform, our multi-year effort to enhance educational opportunities for all Iowa students.
I also voted for important investments in student achievement that were not taken up by the House, including a 4 percent increase in basic state support for local schools for the 2013-2014 school year. These funds would have helped pay for textbooks, heating bills, technology and other necessities for students and teachers to be successful.
I’m proud of what we achieved by working together on this year’s education initiatives. We made investments that will pay off long into the future.
As we look at ways to continue improving Iowa education, we must build on the good things that are happening and fix real problems. If you have ideas or suggestions, I’d like to hear them.
Wow is this Senator like the czar of education? That is all she talks about. Does she know anything else?
She is also pretty good at spending your tax dollars on her special projects. That is why she is called one of the SPEND SISTERS.
“Just one more reason that Unions have ruined America. The NEA is to blame for our low level rankings. I’m embarrassed.”
That is so much humbug. Politics has played a part in many things education for the last 50 plus years. Over that history, times and economics have changed a great deal.
For example, when the Chicago Teachers Union and the Board of Education reached an impasse, a strike was threatened. Then Mayor Daley called both parties into his office, and within hours, problem solved. Yes, he threw some money in to bring about resolution. Yes, the Board had to give into some demands. But the community came out on top.
Today, that kind of thing is not possible. First, the economy, we have maxed out tax rates everywhere. Second, we have so many programs above and beyond just plain education. Last, we have allowed pension systems to be underfunded for too long. Not just in the public sector, but everywhere. IL has a $98 billion shortfall (and growing) because of pensions. Political mishandling, and underfunding. To date, Lawmakers refuse to fix it even after a special session. Private companies instead of managing the pensions, took it’s assets to balance the books, leaving workers nothing.
To blame the Unions is nothing more than scapegoating instead of looking at the whole picture. And because of the idiotic way education is funded (not just in Iowa, but everywhere), it becomes a real task to track the money and see the true costs.
I hear a lot of blather from places like Wisconsin, where unions were suppressed, yet the real costs still exist. They have yet to reform education funding! Why? Would the establishment complain too loud?
Let us begin locally, and examine the larger costs we are forced to pay for. Why we continue to allow boutique schools to be built, when there is proof that almost century old buildings produce results that blow away what we have here.
Year after year, we hear “it’s for the children”, yet what is produced is is no better than if the money had not been spent. I am not ignorant that costs do go up, but in relation to a general cost of living index and the market for goods and services. Yet school spending nation wide still is ahead of the curve. As someone stated, in Iowa salary’s are not.
Find another scapegoat please, the case of the Unions is not realistic.
Iowa…..
Idiots
Out
Wandering
Around
What a load of crap from a polician. Amanda, please share the results. Where do we rank on standardized tests with other states. Iowa used to be 1 or 2 every year 30 years ago, No i doubt we are in the top 15? So please amanda, do tell?? If we improved, what was our standardized test scores and how did they campare to prior years or 20 years ago? Let me guess, our graduation rate is high cuz we pass everyone so that means success in the politicians book right?
🙂
Well look at that…there are stats in the comments…My point is, Amanda sure as hell isn’t going to volunteer that….Iowa has gone from #1 to #38 in education? Where is the outrage, the bums should all be voted out.
U.S. Education system faltered greatly when the UNION came into place. Just one more reason that Unions have ruined America. The NEA is to blame for our low level rankings. I’m embarrassed.
Students were much better off 30 years ago than todays students! MUCH BETTER OFF !
The education system stared rounding the bowl whe the teachers unions & liberal educrats controlling the curriculum decided that it’s not what the kids learn, it’s how they feel about themselves for what they don’t know.
The NEA has been around since 1906, they did not enter the scene 30 years ago as you suggest.
It used to be the NEA was actually interested in education. Over the past 30years or more, they have become to be about partisan political power. Obtaining it, and keeping it. They are just another wing of the Democrat party.
Here are the national scores in Math and Science.
State Rankings for Math and Science Education
RANK STATE
Well Above Average
1 Massachusetts
2 Minnesota
3 New Jersey
4 New Hampshire
5 New York
Above Average
6 Virginia
7 Maryland
8 Connecticut
9 Indiana
10 Maine
Average
11 Florida
12 Illinois
13 South Dakota
14 Wisconsin
15 Colorado
16 Kansas
17 Kentucky
18 Vermont
19 Georgia
20 Washington
21 Utah
22 Pennsylvania
23 Tennessee
24 Ohio
25 Delaware
26 Michigan
27 Oregon
28 Wyoming
29 Montana
Below Average
30 Idaho
31 Texas
32 North Dakota
33 Missouri
34 California
35 Rhode Island
36 North Carolina
37 Hawaii
38 Iowa
Iowa didn’t make the (well below) average number. There are 12 states under them. This is not a “tradition” that I would brag about if I were Amanda.
I dare you to compare the teachers’ salaries from the “well above average” and “above average” states to the salaries of Iowa’s teachers. We do have MANY excellent teachers in Iowa. But we’re losing far too many good teachers to states that pay them more. Minnesota, for example, has excellent teacher salaries. And you can see where they’re ranked on the list.
@Just My opinion, I already pointed out that Iowa Ranked #25 in total salaries, with one of the lowest costs of living in the nation. So how does that answer your dare???
I understand we have a few good teachers…. Just stating the facts here.
I was trying to say, “does that answer your dare” to me? @just my opinion.
This is so sad. When I was in high school, our class ranked in the 99th percentile nationally and in the 98th percentile in the state in the Basic Skills tests and we always tried our hardest in school. Kids have no idea what they are passing up when they don’t pay attention and don’t study. Education is the best free thing they will ever get and they just waste it.
Someone should ask her what she thinks of the DNC for having Bill Clinton give a keynote speech. Talk about Dems claiming the Republicans are waging a “war on women”. Touting Clinton, and the Kennedys as great party heroes should give Dem women pause, unless they approve of their actions.
CLINTON….. “I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN”
Clinton & the Kennedy’s…..NO MORAL VALUES here folks I wonder how many times President Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe on her knees in the Oral Office ( oops I meant to say Oval Office )?
DEMOCRAT WOMEN SHOULD UNITE AGAINST THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR
Statistics of IOWA education level are alarming – wake up AMANDA !…. or let’s just stick more money into this problem
Huh?? Just what do these two remarks have to do with the article?
And I think you’re forgetting that Kennedy and Clinton are thought of as two of our best presidents ever. Wish we had them back.
Thank you John for your input.
Ms. Ragan to bloviate about education and her non accomplishments on NIT on a regular basis. She really likes to toot her own horn. I can understand why when she has been such a looser representing the hard working people of North Iowa.
Thank you watchdog, you are correct. Amanda is a typical Liberal that want’s to push the feel good agenda. “If is is for the children, it must be good and it is an investment.”
Well I want to tell everyone, we have not gotten a good return on our “investment.”
We have an acute problem in Mason City. I have been through it with my kids. Their grades shot up when sent elsewhere and as Forest Gump would say, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
“Iowa has a tradition of educational excellence.” What? When was the last time Iowa was rated #1? In the 70’s we were ranked #1 in the nation.
I did a quick fact check from the Government data on schools. Iowa Ranks: Drum roll please, #44 in daily school attendance, #44 in high school graduates. Yet, we are ranked #25 in total salaries. (Does this sound like excellence to you?)I am so sick of these political hacks telling us that all this money is an “investment” in our children. Give me a break, it isn’t the money, we spend plenty with no results.
“Iowa has a tradition of educational excellence”?? That tradition ended about 25 years ago. About the same time that the NEA and teachers themselves took the emphasis off teaching and put their focus on higher salaries.