The following is a legislative update from Republican Representative Henry Stone of Forest City, representing portions of Emmet, Kossuth and Winnebago counties in Iowa House District 9:
This week I was able to meet with some students from my district. They are Sophomores at Algona High School, and they were visiting as part of their Government class. I am always happy to see people from my district, and I am also happy to see young people taking an interest in state government.
On Wednesday, I had the honor of leading the House in the morning prayer. Following the prayer, my son Andrew led us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
On Wednesday, the House passed HF 604 the teacher empowerment bill in a bipartisan manner. Early in session House Republicans met with teachers from around the state who asked for help in managing behavior in their classrooms. Teachers spoke about the issues of violence in the classroom, disruptive behaviors, lack of support from the administration, numerous trainings they felt were useless, redundant or unnecessary. HF 604 is a direct response to that meeting.
Multiple teachers have relayed stories of their classrooms being destroyed by out of control behavior along with getting physically punched or hit in some manner. According to the Department of Education, there were 63,667 instances of students being removed from classrooms in the 2021-2022 school year. Of those, approximately 36,970, or 58.1%, involved violence or a potential violation of Iowa law. Those are just the numbers that were actually reported!
According to the teachers who met with Republicans, they are being told to sweep things under the rug, or to keep things to themselves. Which means these numbers may be low. If violent incidents are not accurately reported, teachers, students and parents are the ones who suffer the consequences.
The bill gives teachers a place to make a complaint if their administration is failing them. Teachers can file a complaint with the Ombudsman’s Office and the ombudsman will forward their findings on to the Board of Educational Examiners or the Department of Education. The bill also gives whistle-blower protection for teachers who do make these complaints. Administrators cannot penalize them for sticking up for themselves or reporting what is going on. The bill lets teachers know they do have rights when they are being attacked or someone else is being attacked. It will be clear to teachers that they don’t just have to sit there and take it.
The teacher has to report incidents of violence or property damage to the principal within 24 hours and the principal has to report it to the parent or guardian 24 hours after that report was made to them. If the teacher feels like the administrator is not following up, the teacher may contact the parent or guardian themselves.
An important piece of this bill is laying out an escalated discipline policy. First, at all times, a teacher may remove a disruptive student from the classroom under the supervision of a School Resource Officer or administrator. For the first offense, when a teacher removes a disruptive student the district shall facilitate a counseling session between the student and the school counselor and place the student in one day of in-school suspension after the counseling session. For the second offense, facilitate a counseling session and place the student in five days of in-school suspension. For the third time, the school district may permanently remove the student from the classroom but they must consider an alternative learning environment for that student.
Teachers have reached out thanking legislators for this bill. House Republicans and House Democrats worked together, along with the Iowa State Education Association, and other education groups to come up with a bill that supports Iowa’s teachers.
This week, the Iowa House passed a bill, HF 565, to protect landowner rights as three major CO2 pipeline projects are in the works in Iowa. This bill gets at the crux of the issue – eminent domain should not be used for private gain. It requires carbon capture pipeline companies to reach voluntary easements for 90% of the land on their route before they could seek to use eminent domain. It also creates an interim study committee that will make recommendations that will improve eminent domain policy in Iowa. It will take a look at the following issues that have been discussed at length throughout this process:
- Standards for entering land for surveying purposes
- Review of land restoration standards
- Review of eminent domain public benefit and private use tests
- Engineering study analysis
- Land compensation practices and procedures
- Iowa Utility Board perspectives
I understand this bill may not be seen as perfect by folks on either side of this issue. We want to support the ethanol industry while ensuring private property rights are respected. We think this bill strikes that balance.
This is not about opposing the pipelines, but about opposing the use of eminent domain to construct the pipelines. Pipeline companies should not be able to use the heavy hand of government to abuse landowner rights.
(PHOTO: Algona High School Government Students at Iowa Capitol with Rep. Stone)
