Actions speak louder than words

'Let me ask you this very hard question: When did we decide that middle of the pack was good enough when it came to our children's education?”

Governor, if that question sounds familiar, it should. These are your words. In 2012 you promoted creating world class schools. In fact, we have continued the downward trajectory of Iowa's education. A Harvard study confirmed Iowa's declining rate of student achievement over the last 18 years. This comes as no surprise when one finds school districts increasingly compromised and needing to eliminate programs once considered essential for a complete education.

It is April. We still have no plan. Instead, we are witness to partisan bickering while the future of Iowa's children is being negotiated away.

Again and again we hear about the money. As someone who has spent almost four decades building successful businesses, I can assure you this is nonsense. We are at the end of a long road of fiscal neglect that is finally showing up in the test scores of our children and the crumbling infrastructure of our educational system. Unfortunately, unlike our long-neglected roadways and bridges, there is no quick 10-cent per gallon tax to fix this problem.

Is it a surprise that it is challenging to attract educators when we compromise their ability to get the job done? Is it any wonder good administrators throw up their hands in frustration when the legislature fails to meet its legal obligation to define funding within the first 30 days of the session? And since when do we defer to business interests concerning the best way to educate our children?

Consider the bizarre circumstance of the state tourism industry requiring educators to prove a later start date is harmful to students. Reasonable people would expect business interests to prove it is NOT harmful to have a later start. We are clearly through the looking glass where up is down and down is up.

My dad used to tell the story of the farmer who, on discovering he could get by with fewer oats for his plow horse, reduced them each day. Eventually the horse dropped over dead. I cannot help thinking this is the where we are heading with Iowa's education.

We are now hearing the state cannot afford to meet the needs of the children. The defense is one of fiscal responsibility. This argument reminds me of Leo Rosten's definition of chutzpah as: 'that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan”.

Last spring we witnessed your self-congratulatory rhetoric following anemic funding for education. I had occasion to take up the funding issue with state legislators. After the 'we did everything we could and this is better that it would have been” part of the conversation was completed, one of them went on to brag about his child going to a prestigious college back east. I was speechless. After regaining my voice, I asked: 'what about the other children?”

Last year nearly 4 out of 10 Iowa students qualified for free and reduced meals. This is an increase of 42 percent since 2001. Iowa schools are more in need of assistance than ever before. It is disingenuous to suggest you are doing all you can to address the education gap while at the same time failing to properly fund education.

It is time to provide the necessary resources to put Iowa back in the front of the pack!

' Tim Terry founded the accounting firm of Terry Lockridge & Dunn in 1978; in 1991 he founded the investment firm World Trend Financial. He serves on the Board of Directors for UNESCO City of Literature. From 2003 to 2013 he was President of the Board of Willowwind School in Iowa City. Comments: tterry@tld-inc.com