House education reform debate goes late

DES MOINES - Members of the Iowa House added an hour to the preschool day on Tuesday, but were quick to point out that doesn't mean they'll put more money into the program.

They also took some of the Department of Education director's power to dole out grants away and gave private schools the option to excuse themselves from some of the tenants of the Iowa Core.

But in debate that began in the early afternoon and ran into the night, lawmakers had barely touched some of the most controversial parts of Gov. Terry Branstad's education reform proposal.

By 8:30 p.m., lawmakers hadn't picked up the third grade retention, raising grade point averages for incoming teachers or online learning.

“I'm going to be optimistic and say that we are,” said Rep. Royd Chambers, R-Sheldon, when asked if he thought the House would finish up work on the education reform package by the time the House hit a self-imposed midnight deadline to cut off debate. Chambers is the bill's floor manager.

Debate on the bill began with near-unanimous votes that both Democrats and Republicans agreed on such as expanding the Iowa Core to include music instruction and to explore competency-based education.

As the night wore on, however, debates got longer.

“You know what they're getting in Florida? A testucation,” Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, said during debate on an amendment which would have eliminated a number of the tests called for in Branstad proposal. The governor's plan includes mandatory testing for kindergarten readiness, high school end-of-course, the PISA international test and an 11th-grade college entrance exam such as the ACT.

The amendment to remove the test requirements failed.

One of the key issues was an effort to get Republicans on the same page as Branstad with online education.

Clayton Ridge Community School District in northeastern Iowa and CAM Community School District in central Iowa both contracted with private online content companies and plan to open online schools this fall with students enrolling from across the state.

Lawmakers in both chambers were concerned that it was too much, too fast. They drafted changes to the governor's reform proposal that would require teachers to have at least some face-to-face contact with students.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Tom Miller issued an opinion earlier Tuesday that the programs in CAM and Clayton Ridge were set up correctly according to current Iowa law.

But the House leadership also was pushing an amendment that would bring the language in their bill back to the original language proposed by the governor.

“That's likely going to be one of the last issues we take up tonight,” Chambers said. “We think that might take some time.”