Iowa City needs to slow down with new policy

“Just slow down and take a deep breath.” We use this phrase when we need to reassess our options. The Iowa City Community School District School Board would do well to heed these words in regards to the diversity policy it wants to implement. The way in which the board has let this process unfold smacks of federal government's passage of bills: little time for public opinion and no clear answer as to how this policy will work.

While the equalizing of poverty levels within the district is something to strive for, merely moving students to different schools to keep poverty levels within a certain range makes students pawns in a political game. The long-term effects of this policy are lasting: the breakdown of the neighborhood school, the possible depreciation of housing values based on school attendance boundaries and no clear system to implement changes.

Class sizes for elementary students vary greatly within the district with some schools having 30 or more students in a class and others have fewer than 20 within upper elementary classrooms. Ironically, the board does not address this fact when wanting to “make schools more equitable.” If the school board truly wants what is best for children and education, it needs to slow the process and actually listen to the children, parents and district employees.

Matt Fisher

5th-grade educator,

Wickham Elementary Coralville