Let the education town halls begin

Although the outline has been getting clearer over the past few months, Gov. Terry Branstad will officially unveil his education reform plan next Monday, Oct. 3, at his weekly press conference.

The next day, Linda Fandel, Branstad's education adviser, will start a listening tour to find out what some local school administrators and business leaders think of the thing. The rest of youse? Well, you're welcome to participate in some tightly scheduled town hall meetings.

Despite a months-long, well-publicized process of crafting a reform plan, a surprising number of education leaders in Eastern Iowa say they haven't yet been asked for their 2-cents. So next week is when the majority of the people actually educating our kids get to weigh in on how we might do it better. Buckle up.

The first town hall will be Thursday, Oct. 6 at 9:30 a.m. at the Washington High School Auditorium in Washington. It will be followed by two more the same day -- one at 12:30 p.m. in the Van Buren High School  music room in Keosauqua, and a second at 2:30 p.m. at the Davis County High School library in Bloomfield.

A fourth town hall will be Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 at 12:30 p.m. in the Van Meter High School gym.