Central is a member of the Rural School Advocates of Iowa (RSAI) network. It has been my experience that many of the things coming out of Des Moines favor our larger urban schools and are heavily out of touch with the realities we face in rural Iowa. We need those who support rural schools--especially parents, to speak up and share the advantages of our rural schools and demand that our children be treated equitably. Below you will find a video from Rural School Advocates of Iowa laying out their priorities for the 2017 session. I'd like to briefly touch on some of these priorities and why they are relevant for Central taxpayers.
- Transportation Equity- As you can see by the map provided by RSAI, Central is dark blue meaning we pay the highest level of per-pupil funding just to get our students to and from school. This takes away from hiring teachers, increasing class offerings, curriculum, and other educational costs.
- State Penny Sales Tax- For those of us who like lower property taxes, this is a big deal! RSAI shares the effect on decreased property taxes the State Penny has had. We are now seeing our property taxes increase as each year we get closer to the sunset of the State Penny. Iowa Public Schools and their supporters should also not be interested in selling our souls to get an extension, meaning allowing other uses such as water quality at these funds just to get an extension. The State has already set aside money for addressing water quality, why do they need to take it from schools?
- Iowa Funding Formula Equality- You may have seen this one in the news with Davenport's superintendent, Art Tate publicly stating Davenport would break the law to ensure their students are funded equitably. While I am too young in my career to go breaking the law and losing my license, I agree with Mr. Tate and appreciate the stance and attention he is bringing to this issue. Central, like Davenport is one of the 170 of 330 school districts not receiving the highest level of funding. That robs Central of $75,775 a year, which again could be used toward another teacher, educational supplies, and class offerings.
- Operational Sharing- Central currently shares the following; business manager, human resource manager, transportation director, curriculum director, and school counselor. If Central did not receive operational sharing incentives, we would not be able to fund these positions.
- New State Assessment- It is looking more and more like the Iowa Assessment (which used to be ITBS) will be replaced with Smarter Balanced, a new state assessment. This is a big topic so I will dedicate a Blog article to this in the near future.
- 3rd Grade Retention & Summer School- Central was a part of the State's pilot program last year and along with the State we had mixed results. As RSAI correctly points out, there is no funding for a summer school program and running a quality program has a significant cost. Research also shows retention simply does not work, so in my opinion this is bad legislation.
- Quality Preschool- Please stop in anytime so I can share with you Central's early literacy data. I credit a lot of our success to our preschool program. Many of you may not know that preschool students are only funded at half the cost of all other students. I support RSAI's position of fully funding preschool.
Please take some time and get informed about the issues public education faces and get involved. As parents and taxpayers, your voice makes a difference. Please do not hesitate to send questions through this Blog, my email, or even stop in for a conversation.
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