What they’re thinking: Changes coming to education in Iowa

Two of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ top education policy priorities — Senate File 496, colloquially dubbed the “parental rights bill,” and education saving accounts for private school tuition outlined in House File 68 — were passed earlier this year by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by the governor.

SF 496, among other provisions, states that a school district “shall not provide any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six.” The law also prohibits school library books that include “any material with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.”

And as of early July, nearly 17,500 students — the majority of whom already attend private schools — had been approved to receive taxpayer-funded education saving accounts worth about $7,600 for private school expenses, as envisioned in HF 68. That number — already more than the 14,068 approvals the sate had anticipated — is likely to grow before a July 31 deadline for granting approvals.

With sweeping reforms to Iowa’s education system in play comes sweeping changes. Melissa Peterson, the legislative and policy director of the Iowa State Education Association — the largest teachers union in Iowa, which opposed both bills — speaks on the impact these government decisions could have on the field of education in Iowa.

Q: From your perspective as the legislative and policy director of the Iowa State Education Association, how do you anticipate the recent “parents rights” education bill is going to impact the field of education?

A: Incredibly, and in many different ways. I am quite sure that there are going to be serious implications for our education professionals as it relates to the new interpretation of what is considered to be age appropriate, which prohibits any school librarians from including texts that have depictions of sex acts.

We have concerns about what the implications are going to be, and how an education professional might go about responding to a student who, in the midst of show and tell, has a conversation about their two dads and what they did on summer vacation. Or what about an educator who has a picture of their spouse on their desk and a student asks a question. I think for folks that think that this is just “don't say gay,” they're not taking into consideration that gender identity means any gender identity — sexual orientation means any sexual orientation.

Timing also creates a complication because this legislation, obviously, was passed during the 2023 session. We are now going to be working with the applications of this law and many others beginning with the school year that will start in August, but most of our teachers are non-contract over the summer. How are school districts going about preparing themselves to ensure that the districts, as well as the education professionals, are going to be in compliance for when school starts here in the next five to six weeks?

Q: Do you think that there's going to be any changes in the number of educators that enter the field or choose to stay in Iowa amid this most recent legislative session?

A: I will tell you anecdotally we are already hearing of situations where folks are pursuing opportunities in other states — in Minnesota, in Illinois, even across the border in Nebraska, particularly in Omaha — where they were providing additional hiring incentives for educators.

We are very proud of the quality teacher preparation programs that we have in the state both with the Board of Regents and also through private institutions. But we have grave concerns that if the state continues in this trend in not involving the expert educators in decision making as it applies to education policy, and then when you couple that with disciplinary actions without establishing what the criteria will be for compliance, we're not incentivizing education professionals to stay in the state of Iowa.

Q: From a funding perspective, how does the Education Savings Account program influence Iowa schools as a whole?

A: I think it speaks volumes that we did have bipartisan opposition to the governor's universal voucher program in June, but those that did support it did so under the understanding that the program was going to have an estimated appropriation of about $107 million in its first year, which by the way, is on par with the amount of increase received by the entire public school system of $107 million. However, that was predicated on approximately 14,000 applications being received by the Iowa Department of Education in concert with their third party out-of-state vendor Odyssey.

An unlimited budget has been created and satisfied for this ESA, or this voucher program. I cannot begin to describe the number of things that public schools, the 327 public school districts that function, if we had an unlimited budget. We would not have some of the challenges that we're currently experiencing in our public school districts.

When we look at the resources that the state has available, we think it's incumbent upon everyone to make investments where those resources are going to do the most good. We firmly believe at the Iowa State Education Association that the money should be spent in our public education system — a system that's benefiting nearly a half million students. We just don't think that the taxpayer should have to subsidize attendance and a non-public school when again, there's not the same level of accountability, transparency or oversight.

Comments: jami.martin-trainor@thegazette.com