More money sought for continued reforms of Iowa schools

DES MOINES- Iowa's education chief made a pitch Tuesday for more state money next fiscal year to boost elementary reading skills and fund teacher leadership and compensation initiatives that were part of education reforms intended to improve student performance.

Brad Buck, director of the State Department of Education, said a state panel later this week will announce the second phase of a $50 million yearly transformational program which attracted 161 applications from 170 school districts. Those new awardees identified Friday will join 39 districts covering about one-third of Iowa school children that already are engaged in the three-year effort to improve instruction and raise achievement.

Buck asked Gov. Terry Branstad to include in his budget asking for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 another $50 million annually along with $1 million for ongoing implementation of the teacher leader support system and $1 million for the school principal support system.

The education agency director also requested $8 million to implement an early literacy initiative at Iowa public and accredited non-public elementary schools, $3.2 million to fully fund an early warning system to identify struggling young readers and monitor their progress, $2 million to fully fund the Iowa Reading Research Center, and $500,000 to design high-quality summer intervention programs for struggling readers.

Buck's presentation did not include a recommendation for supplemental state aid to K-12 schools to cover their base budgets for the next two fiscal years, saying that decision rests with the governor.

Branstad was non-committal on how much money the state could afford for state supplemental aid to schools beyond the money already earmarked for education reform and higher education.

'We've got to look at the whole big picture and we've got to look at all of education and what we're doing for both K-12 and higher education,” he told reporters.

'Education is an important priority,” the governor added. 'But we have to look at the whole picture and what is affordable and sustainable for the long term. We've already projected significant additional money going into the education program as well as property tax relief and I want to make sure those commitments are maintained” before deciding how much new money can be spent.

After the hearing, Buck said reaction has been 'completely mixed” to Friday's announcement that the State Department of Education will no longer grant automatic waivers to school officials requesting to begin classes earlier in August. The policy change took effect immediately for the 2015-16 school year.

Buck's action followed a request from Branstad that districts wait to begin classes in the calendar week in which Sept. 1 falls unless school officials can demonstrate a 'significantly negative educational impact” to start school earlier in August.

'We have some that are very upset, some that are very happy, and some that are in between saying give me the criteria and we'll go from there,” Buck said of the response he has received. 'So it's been actually more surprising to me in its mixed nature than I had honestly anticipated.”

The DOE director said the change reflects new flexibility put into Iowa law last July 1 that provides districts and accredited non-public schools the option to choose between 180 days or 1,080 hours of instruction when setting their school calendars. He said he expects his agency expects to issue guidelines to school districts by early January.

'In our guidance we'll put that revised process together and the criteria, so if they've already got a calendar, they'll need to go through that process for a waiver,” he said. 'Typically that's happened in the spring. We're going to change that process so they can start to apply to get that feedback.”