Fight for better K-12 education funding

We are glad that our two daughters are students at Iowa City High School. We have been very impressed by the excellent education that they have gotten since we moved here from western Massachusetts in 2007. We have keenly followed local and state education issues like funding and improving our great K-12 programs. We have attended school board meetings about building and renovating schools as well as meetings about achieving diversity and equity of demographics, facilities, and curricula so that every child can have an equally good educational experience, no matter what their address is.

However, we are quite concerned that the schools in our school district and other areas of Iowa are at risk of failing if we do not provide adequate state funding to support them.

Governor Branstad recommended and the House voted for only a 1.25 percent increase in K-12 education funding. A 4 percent funding increase due to rising costs is necessary to prevent disastrous school budget cuts which will eliminate programs like sports and music, teachers, and essential school administrative staff. Class sizes will become too large for effective teaching. Iowa has already fallen to 35th in the nation in per pupil spending.

Governor Branstad, legislators, and everyone else in the state (whether they have school age children or not) need to realize that education is the basis of our local and state economy. If the schools start to fail, families and companies will not move to or will move out of Iowa. If schools and the local economy start to fail, property values will fall. Many people will lose jobs, including teachers.

Good schools are vitally necessary to prepare our children for lifelong learning and growth as individuals and to provide them with skills necessary to compete in the 21st century job market.

It was unfortunate that our legislature passed a huge commercial tax cut in March, 2014 (Senate File 295) which does not allow more revenue for education funding. Our cities also will face painful budget cuts. Ironically, this commercial tax rollback will discourage corporations and the families that run them from moving to Iowa because of the failing schools caused by the lack of adequate funding.

We all need to get involved and actively advocate to save our schools in Iowa. You can make a real difference in deciding the outcome of this pending vote.

' John Macatee is an osteopathic physician in Iowa City. Comments: jrmacatee@gmail.com