Will it be different this time?

As a parent with kids in elementary school, education reform is a big issue for me.

So I think it's great that Gov. Terry Branstad is having a big “Iowa Education Summit” in July to gather ideas from a national cavalcade of experts. It should be a stimulating couple of days.

The governor says it will bring real change. He's even suggested convening a special legislative session to deal with ideas springing from the summit. It's going to be different this time.

And yet, it doesn't feel that way.

Our Statehouse heroes are embroiled in the same old fights over education funding. Republicans and Branstad, who railed against across-the-board ed cuts ordered by Chet Culver in 2009, want to put that money back, about $216 million.

But restoring 2009 funding still means trouble for schools in 2011 and beyond. Democrats also want to increase state aid by 2 percent, or about $65 million. Republicans oppose that, calling it unaffordable, and would lock in 2009 funding for two school years. Districts insist that no increase, as expenses rise, is a cut.

Branstad wants to cut the state's public preschool program, turning it into a system of vouchers for low-income families. Republicans who run the House cut it even more, as Democrats fume.

R's and D's are at odds. Conservatives want detention for the teachers' union and decry preschool indoctrination. School administrators are pleading with state policymakers, who in turn, discount their concerns. Everyone is following the dog-eared script to the letter.

I'm not writing this to declare a winner. Although I will say anyone with an ounce of candor and a calculator can tell you the state can afford a modest increase in education aid. Every other Iowa Legislature since this funding scheme began has figured out a way to do it. This one should.

My point is, if these folks can't even find agreement on these very basic issues, what chance does real educational change have? They're stuck in trenches. And Branstad, who ran promising to create “world-class schools,” has done precious little to alter the plot.

I wonder if Branstad is really willing to do what it takes to lead educators and Iowans toward big changes and big goals. That's going to mean collaboration. That's going to mean leaving that comfort zone where he's an unyielding, unrelenting master CEO with the big veto pen. It could even mean making some concessions to buy some valuable trust from folks who will be on the front lines of making reform happen. Instead, he's made it clear his preferred management style is his way or the highway. He has a “mandate,” remember?

Are we going to see leadership that actually motivates our schools to embrace necessary innovation, or more top-down edicts from on high that prompt the kind of push-back that's slowed and doomed change in the past? If it's leadership, it really will be different this time.

Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net