Iowa GOP actions don’t improve education

I was an educator for 40 years, mostly in Iowa, as a classroom teacher, a guidance counselor, and as an administrator. When I went to national conferences, I was proud to say I was from Iowa and was envied by many other educators because of that fact. Educators in other states envied our ability to bargain with our school boards, the financial support we received from the state, and the strong support all of our educators received from our AEA system, non-existent in many other states.

As soon as Republicans took over the state several years ago, all of those things were inexplicably attacked immediately. The very first thing the legislature did was to get rid of a bargaining system that had been in place for nearly 50 years. There was never an explanation as to why this was a good idea, as exemplified by the fact this issue had not been mentioned by anyone running for office, including the governor.

Then the legislature got bogged down attempting to control what was talked about in the classroom, even though the things they were discussing were non-existent 99% of the time in 99% of classrooms. How was trying to control a tiny fraction of classroom time supposed to improve the overall education of our children?

It seemed like a good idea, certainly among the Republicans, to allow more options for families to have their children educated, and the best option seemed to be helping these families pay for a private education. It didn’t seem to matter that most of these private educational institutions are not held to the same requirements and standards as the public schools. So now we'll be sending hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools instead of to the schools where most of Iowa’s children are educated. This year, for example, two-thirds of private scholarships went to families that already had children enrolled in the private school. That increased choice?

One of the shining examples of our state’s commitment to educating all children equally was the implementation of the Area Education Agencies many years ago; most people can’t remember before they existed. This system of pooling resources so that every child in the state had equal access to the best support system in special education, media, and general education was envied by most of the country. Once AEAs were introduced, the lone child in the most rural district could now have access to the support of a whole system of educators to make sure that child received the best education possible, with no additional cost to the district. Once again, there has been no explanation of how the changes backed by Gov. Kim Reynolds are going to improve the education of our children.

The best chance of a child to receive a quality education is to have a quality educator leading the classroom. Everything the Legislature has done in the last several years has discouraged educators from wanting to teach in Iowa. Right now, hundreds of incredible support people at the AEAs are wondering if their jobs will be radically changed or eliminated. How does that improve the education of our children?

Gary Warner lives in Cedar Rapids.