Students benefit from STEM initiative

I appreciated Kim Reynolds' guest column about the value of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and workplace learning opportunities ('Students can learn a lot in the workforce,” July 28).

While she and Gov. Terry Branstad have not always supported preschool and education funding as they should, they do deserve credit for expanding the STEM initiative that was started under Gov. Chet Culver.

Senators Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids and Bob Dvorsky of Coralville were instrumental in passing the state's first STEM education initiative in 2007.

That initiative, which funded the Corridor STEM Initiative through the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, was the pilot project that has grown into a statewide policy that now helps more than 100,000 Iowa students each year.

As a career public school educator, now retired, I am grateful to have such strong leaders for education representing us in the Iowa Senate.

Leslee Sandberg

Cedar Rapids