Dealing with access on three fronts

Today's column is brought to you by the word “access.”

It's at the heart of three issues that caught my eye this week - one federal, one state and one local.

First, there's the good news/bad news that the U.S. Postal Service has decided not to close mail processing facilities in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo.

The good news, of course, is that means 214 local jobs will stay put and mail delivery won't slow down. For now.

The bad news is the Postmaster is no closer to figuring out how to keep offering a service no one seems willing to compromise about even though ever fewer of us use it.

We want all the access to speedy, six-day delivery we had back when mailboxes were bursting and the USPS was flush but we're unwilling to subsidize delivery, a la Amtrak. Something is going to have to give.

On another front, state lawmakers are debating whether and how much online education should count as “school.”

The Senate Education Committee unveiled this week a reform bill that would limit students to no more than 50 percent of coursework online, unless they get a waiver from their home school and parental approval.

The way it stands now, any Iowa student can open enroll in either of the two school districts that have signed deals with online academies to offer K-12 curriculum to students from home.

Fans say it gives kids access to a range of electives small schools can only dream of. Foes worry about quality and teacher-student time.

Then there's the question of nearly $6,000 in per-pupil funding districts lose for each student who enrolls online. Seems like opening the window to student learning means shutting doors for the majority of already-struggling schools.

Which brings us to Iowa City, where members of the self-supported municipal improvement district board have shut the doors to their meetings so they can hatch in peace their brilliant plans to revitalize downtown.

They're tax funded, but a non-profit organization, they say, not a government group. They don't have to comply with Iowa's Sunshine laws. They may be right.

But did someone say taxation without representation? Well, the board says, anyone who pays the tax can come - if they sign on as SSMID members.

Seeing as how fewer than 50 percent of those paying the tax signed a petition for the district in the first place, it smells a little like a loyalty oath.

And it's just bad form to limit public access to meetings about how to make downtown more vibrant and relevant and attractive to - you guessed it - the public.

 Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net