Education reform in Iowa...again
Last year the Governor wanted more tests for students and teachers but lawmakers disagreed.
But the Governor is trying again.
He's pitching his ideas for reform in Muscatine.
He wants good teachers in the classroom and bad ones out.
To do that he's calling for an increase in teacher pay and better tools to measure learning goals.
But school boards wonder, where will the money come from?
"I think it's going to be interesting to see just how much we're willing to step up and fund how much the respect, the prestige, as well as the compensation of our teachers," says Muscatine School Board member Nathan Mather.
He supports the Governor's overall reform goals. but he says the state will have to step up the number of checks mailed to Iowa school districts.
"That's been a tough thing especially with the cuts that have happened the last couple of years, everyone has had to tighten their belts of course, but just like any business we're looking for certainty as to what we can expect in the future," says Mather.
The Governor says it can be done. And believes a pay increase will make a teaching career more attractive.
"Unfortunately teacher salaries, have been stuck at about 28-thousand for quite a while, we'd like to see that increase over time," says Governor Terry Branstad.
He says that increase will draw better students into a teaching career. Improving the teaching workforce. And returning Iowa's students to a standard set 20 years ago.
"We now rank in the middle of the pack, that's because our students have stayed relatively stagnant," says Branstad.
The Governor says better data collection and more comprehensive goals will work. And Mather says that will allow school boards to make solid evaluations.
"A much greater emphasis on measurable indicators of performance, so we have clear and concrete data that can guide us so we can know where we're being successful and we're not."
Some of the Governor's ideas were unpopular last year.
Lawmakers didn't like raising training standards, and quizzing teachers on their subjects.
But he says more needs to be done this year to strengthen Iowa's schools.
His education task forces will issue a report in October.
The Governor will combine the ideas with next year's budget.
Setting up his education policy in January.
