Remarks Prepared for Delivery; Chris Bern President of the Iowa State Education Association

Remarks prepared for delivery

Chris Bern

President Iowa State Education Association

Public Hearing on House File 45

January 18, 2011

My name is Chris Bern and I am the President of the Iowa State Education Association. We represent over 33,000 professional educators across Iowa. Education has long been a priority for Iowans. Unfortunately, House File 45 contains major components which will be extremely harmful to the quality of public education in our state.

Tonight I'm also speaking as part of the Coalition for a Better Iowa, representing a broad range of organizations concerned about the future of Iowa. We urge you to stop this bill and instead, let us roll up our sleeves and work together to find ways to continue to invest state resources in education. There are so many areas of concern in this bill, not the least of which is eliminating funding for the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for four-year-olds, reducing Area Education Agency budgets by $10 million beginning this year and continuing into the years ahead, and eliminating funding for the implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Research shows children who attend quality preschool typically enter kindergarten with increased cognitive abilities, increased literacy and mathematics skills, and tend to get along better with others than children who did not attend preschool. House File 45 will force many in the middle class to make a decision to choose the lower cost alternative of child care at the expense of quality preschool in their child's formative learning years. Let us ensure that all four-year-olds have access to a high quality Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program funded by revenues that do not divert what would otherwise be K-12 resources.

Funds invested in early education and quality preschool provide a large return on investment for the state. Tax cuts, on the other hand, do not show these rewards or returns. The ISEA opposes the use of one-time general fund revenues for tax relief at the same time significant cuts are being proposed for essential services like public education.

I urge you to continue to fund vital services provided by Iowa's Area Education Agencies. Iowa's AEAs are a model of efficiency for providing services to public and non-public schools. Cutting $10 million from the annual funding for AEAs would drastically reduce services in the special education budget and imperil the state's ability to meet federal maintenance of effort standards.

Iowa has always been on the forefront of quality education. The Iowa Core Curriculum defines a higher expectation that goes beyond minimum proficiency levels. I urge you to continue to provide financial support for the implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum. Millions of dollars, thousands of hours, and years of preparation will be lost if the Iowa Department of Education, schools, and AEAs have to start the process over. Any changes to the Iowa Core Curriculum should be made only if the change will ensure better learning for students.

That's what this is about, putting our kids first. Giving them world class preschool, giving them AEAs that support their schools and educators, and offering them a rigorous curriculum that will provide them with the very best education.

I'm here on behalf of our members, willing to engage in the dialogue that you, our elected officials said you wanted to have with Iowa educators. We're still waiting. Iowa's children are waiting.

Thank you for your time and consideration.