Culver signs school reforms, hoping to earn federal dollars

DES MOINES Gov. Chet Culver on Friday signed a bill with school reforms meant to make Iowa's application for federal dollars more competitive, despite a backlash from urban school districts around the state.

House members met in a rare Friday session to vote on a plan meant to better position Iowa to qualify for up to $175 million in federal Race to the Top funds as they rushed to meet a Tuesday deadline to apply.

Culver put his signature on the measure late Friday afternoon in a hastily scheduled news conference.

“We really feel good about this bill,” Culver said of the legislation, the first he has signed in the 2010 legislative session. He said more than 220 Iowa school districts have agreed to try to secure the money.

Part of the legislation includes plans meant to help turn around low-performing schools, which drew criticism from urban school districts around the state.

School officials said one provision would require school districts and teacher unions to hash out a memorandum of understanding, agreeing on one of four approaches or models to improve schools.

That provision drew the ire from Iowa districts that are members of the Urban Education Network.

UEN Executive Director Lew Finch said it includes an unacceptable extension of collective bargaining.

“What that does is remove from the elected school board the authority to make a decision regarding school improvement and allows the union to veto that,” Finch said.

Finch said they initially supported the idea of Iowa's application for Race to the Top funds until they saw the actual legislation.

Seven of the largest school districts in Iowa have withdrawn support for the plan including Davenport, Waterloo, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque and Council Bluffs.

Culver said he was disappointed that some larger districts were not going to partner with the state. But he said his door is open, and perhaps they could encourage those districts to compete for Race to the Top dollars in the future if there is another opportunity to do so.

The legislation, backed by Democrats, was approved Friday in the House on a party line vote of 56-37. It allows the creation of “innovation zone” schools and lifts Iowa's cap of 20 charter schools.

The Iowa State Education Association, a union representing teachers and education workers with more than 34,000 members, called passage of the bill a major victory.

“We are grateful that level heads prevailed with today's vote and legislators weren't swayed by the selfish arguments of a bureaucrat stuck in the old way of doing business as usual,” said ISEA President Chris Bern in a statement. “It is appalling that some administrators were more concerned about their territorial rights than listening to a child's classroom teacher.”

State Rep. Mary Mascher, an Iowa City Democrat and retired school teacher, said it is a good thing for teachers to have input.

“I think teachers have a great interest in making sure that those kids do well, and looking for innovative ways to go about that,” Mascher said.

Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, called it embarrassing to force through legislation that many school districts are not supporting.

“When school districts learn about what's actually in this bill, they're saying ‘we don't want to participate',” Rants said.

Rep. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, said Davenport and other school districts choosing not to participate walked away from the opportunity the meet the needs of their students.

“They walked away from an opportunity to make Iowa's schools better,” Winckler said.

The legislation would require school districts with one of Iowa's 35 persistently low-performing schools to implement one or more mandates from the U.S. Department of Education.

Those mandates include the following, according to a bill summary prepared by House Democratic staff:

-- Replacing the principal and rehiring no more than 50 percent of the staff, along with flexibilities to implement comprehensive reform.

-- Converting a school, closing a school and reopening it as a charter school or under an education management organization and undergoing a rigorous review process.

-- Closing a school and enrolling students there in other schools.

-- Transforming a school by replacing the principal, developing and increasing teacher and school leader effectiveness, instituting comprehensive instructional reform, increasing learning time and providing operational flexibility and sustained support.