April 5, 2007
Teacher Pay
As I am writing this newsletter, we are sitting in the chamber debating SF277, the teacher pay bill. In recent years the clamor has risen demanding an increase in teacher pay. SF277, has a commendable goal, that of increasing teacher pay (it includes a $70 million appropriation in FY08 and $75 million in FY09). There are, however disconcerting elements to it. One impact is the bill allows schools to raise property tax to help pay for a new requirement in the bill, the requirement that all schools have a nurse, a counselor and a librarian. One thing that Democrats and Republicans alike ran their campaigns on is property tax relief. This bill will increase property taxes in rural school districts which do not have a huge cushion of reserve funds from which to draw. My concern is this bill is an unfunded mandate on our local schools. Rep. Cecil Dolecheck offered an amendment removing the “property tax increase”, but it was turned down. As Rep. Lance Horbach pointed out, we do not require many other positions, so we could very likely see other positions eliminated to help pay for nurses, counselors and librarians, when local schools are short on funds, as always seems to be the case.
The Iowa School Board association has some serious concerns with this bill. They are supporting an amendment offered by Rep. Jodi Tymeson, which returns the professional development bargaining and negotiations expansion back to the school district authority by striking the requirement of an appointed teacher quality committee. This returns the authority to local school boards.
The IASB also supports an amendment which reinstates existing language on market factor, returning sole discretion to districts to decide market factor pay. This amendment does support the increased funding level.
Rep. Mike May offered an amendment that requires implementation of Career II and Advanced levels of teacher quality in the interest of promoting better student achievement. This amendment reflects some of the proposals of the Institute for Tomorrow’s Workforce, a non-profit task force commissioned by former Governor Vilsack, and puts some accountability in the bill.
This bill offers me a huge dilemma. I would like to be able to support teacher pay increases. However I have very real concerns about giving schools a mandate that will result in increases in property taxes to meet the requirement. I also have concerns about taking authority away from local school boards on decisions about professional development and teacher pay negotiations and the need for more accountability for student achievement in the bill. My no vote on this bill is because the majority party refused to accept these amendments.
Visitors to the Capitol
Tom & Karen Lawrance with one of the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams that represented Iowa at Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita, the post-Katrina Mardi Gras and other deployments. The team consists of 135 specially trained Iowans who provide medical care during a disaster or other unusual event. The team is a federal resource and members are employees of the US Department of Health & Human Services when they are activated. The team is sponsored by Kirkwood Community College and is co-located with the National Mass Fatalities Institute on the KCC campus.
Kiwianis members Duane Popenhagen, Stan Wolford, Bev Rens, and Craig Robinson with 10 outstanding Seniors from BGM High School.
Question of the Week…
One of the criticisms of SF277 is it does not make a correlation between teacher pay and teacher excellence/student achievement. Do you believe the increase in teacher pay should be dependent on improved student achievement?
I would appreciate your input. My phone number at the Capitol is 515-281-3221, or e-mail me at betty.deboef@legis.state.ia.us. I would welcome visitors at the Capitol, too!