By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)
Governor Kim Reynolds is urging legislators to advance her plan to overhaul the state’s Area Education Agencies.
“To stick our head in the sand and say: ‘Everything is perfect. I don’t want to change anything! We need more time.’ That’s ridiculous,” Reynolds said earlier today. “Businesses have to do this every day to survive. We need to start operating government in that manner because ultimately that is how the kids are going to get a quality education.”
Reynolds has said changes are necessary because test scores show students with disabilities aren’t being served well by the AEAs. The governor spoke with reporters just before hour-long hearings in the Iowa House and Senate on her bill. Key House Republicans say there’s still a need for more discussions before the bill is ready for a committee vote.
The bill did clear a Senate subcommittee, but Republican Senator Ken Rozenboom of Oskaloosa says legislators need to find answers to questions that have been raised.
“I’m not going to dissect the bill today. We’ve had discussions about it. We’ve heard pros and cons,” Rozenboom told reporters. “There are conceptual fundamental pieces of this that we need to address…and then we have to wrestle with the rollout and a timeline that, again, serves our children well.”
During the House subcommittee hearing, Okoboji Superintendent Todd Abrahamson said he supports giving school districts the federal, state and property tax money that’s currently being forwarded to the AEAs, so his district can hire its own staff.
“Change is good,” Abrahamson said. “We’ve already started to look at what we would do with the dollars — a special ed director, a speech therapist, a behavior psychologist so we could meet the needs every day in our district because those needs are not being met currently.”
Council Bluffs Superintendent Vicki Murrilo said the governor’s plan will transform an outdated system. “For the past seven years I have watched millions of flow through dollars from our district go directly to the AEAs without having a voice for how those dollars will be used to support the needs of our district,” Murillo said.
Waukee Superintendent Brad Buck, the former director of the Iowa Department of Education, told lawmakers the bill will create winners and losers. “It’s far more likely that larger districts will come out in better shape in this bill than smaller and especially rural districts,” Buck said.
Dan Daughton, a former principal and superintendent, is a lobbyist for the School Administrators of Iowa and Rural School Advocates of Iowa — groups that oppose the bill. “Right now districts are sharing school social workers with AEAs in order to provide mental health services for their children,” Daughton said. “That will go away with this bill as it is prohibited…Rural schools will be impacted, I think, more so than others….We couldn’t find mental health workers before we had this sharing agreement.”
Others who testified urged lawmakers to hit the pause button. Deb Davis, a member of the Johnston School Board, said if the bill is rushed through, there could be unintended consequences.
“I recommend taking the time needed to do an audit and study on the AEAs and invite superintendents and school districts to be a part of this process as this bill is formulated and tweaked,” Davis said.
Suzanne Costello of Kellogg is the parent of a child with learning disabilities including dyslexia who she said has been helped by the local AEA. She doubts small schools will be able to hire professional staff. “You’re going to take the person with the most special needs and you’re going to put them with somebody with a high school diploma who has very little education and skill sets and that’s what my kid’s going to get?” Costello said. “No way!”
Holly Messenger of West Des Moines told lawmakers she doubts her district could find the kind of experts the AEA provides to train teachers to help her son Kiran, who uses an eye-driven device to communicate.
“You are not going to be able to efficiently and economically get that level of collaboration with a cobbled together piecemeal fee-for-service approach,” she said, “and my son’s education will suffer because of it.”
Representatives of Iowans for Tax Relief, Americans for Prosperity and the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association urged legislators to ratify the governor’s changes, which would reduce property taxes by $33 million.
