‘Education’ Archives
Author: deanfiihr Published: January 12th, 2011
On a party line vote, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee took the first step to end preschool for nearly 20,000 Iowa kids tonight and shut down a small business job creation initiative.
“Unfortunately, the Republican plan puts our kids and small businesses last. I’m extremely disappointed that the largest cost saving measure suggested by Republicans is to kick four year olds out of preschool next year,” said State Rep. Tyler Olson, D-Cedar Rapids, who is Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Republicans also eliminated an effort to help small businesses expand and create new jobs. House Democrats will work with Republicans to make state government more efficient, but we won’t do it at the expense of hard working families and small businesses.”
For more information on preschool or to leave a comment, click here.
Tags: Four Year Old Preschool, Iowa House Republicans, Save Preschool, Tyler Olson
Category Education, Featured, Recent News |
Author: deanfiihr Published: October 15th, 2010
According to a report by the advocacy group Education Law Center, Iowa scored among one of the highest on its “National Report Card” of state school funding systems. The report specifically evaluated how states distribute education money to school districts and if they provide funding that takes into account the additional needs generated by “student poverty”.
The report – Is School Fund Fair? A National Report Card measured four indicators to determine the fairness of education funding and providing resources to districts which have students with greater needs. Those indicators are:
- Funding level
- Funding distribution
- State fiscal effort
- Public school coverage
The Education Law Center is a non-profit organization headquartered in Newark, N.J., which studies and advocates on a number of education policy issues.
Five other states received high marks, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Wyoming. For more information visit: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39636443
Tags: Education Funding, Education Law Center, Iowa Education
Category Education, Featured, Recent News |
Author: deanfiihr Published: September 14th, 2010
Strengthening Iowa’s economy, creating jobs, and keeping the state budget balanced will be the main focus of the 2011 Legislative Session. The “Growing Jobs, Growing Iowa” agenda, used for the 2011 legislative session, was rolled out this week.
Signs are pointing to a stronger Iowa economy as Iowa adds another 15,400 jobs in the first three months of the year and a Manpower survey said Iowa had the third best employment outlook in the country.
Iowa’s leading index of economic indicators continues to rise steadily. Iowa’s unemployment rate is ninth lowest in the country and, according to the USDA, farm income is expected to rise by 10 percent this year.
For the third year in a row, Iowa was ranked in the top ten as one of CNBC’s “Top States for Doing Business” and a Kids Count survey ranked Iowa as the 6th best place to raise kids in the country.
After making Iowa a world leader in renewable energy with 8,700 “green” jobs and expanding support for small businesses across Iowa, would also work to encourage businesses that offer good paying jobs to locate or expand in Iowa.
Create Jobs & Keep Iowa’s Economy Growing
House Democrats will continue to focus on small businesses and renewable energy. We’ve already expanded support for Iowa’s Small Business Development Centers and launched a new Save Our Small Business Fund. By making Iowa a world leader in renewable energy, we now have over 8,700 good-paying “green” jobs across the state. We are 2nd in the nation in wind energy production and lead the nation in the production of ethanol and biodiesel.
Our plan to create jobs and keep Iowa’s economy growing will include, continuing to help small businesses get started or expand to create jobs, create good-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs by helping the renewable energy industry expand in Iowa, and encourage businesses that offer good-paying jobs to locate or expand in Iowa.
Balance the Budget & Reform Government
When the recession hit Iowa last year, House Democrats reduced spending and reorganized state government to save taxpayers $300 million and keep the state budget balanced. At the same time, we cut pay and eliminated out-of-state travel for legislators and staff. Without raising taxes, we ended the last fiscal year with $265 million more revenue than projected, boosting our savings accounts to $550 million. Iowa is also one of a few states to score the “triple crown” of state financing by earning “AAA” ratings from all three major national credit rating agencies. The non-partisan Pew Center for the States recently rated Iowa #2 in the country for fiscal strength.
Our plan to balance the budget & reform government by balancing the budget without raising taxes, refill the state’s savings accounts within two years, review corporate tax credits to ensure they create the jobs promised, and establish a toll-free line to report wasteful government spending.
Strengthen Iowa’s Middle Class
House Democrats believe a strong middle class is the foundation of Iowa’s economy. Even in tough economic times, a quality education and health care are essential for a prosperous middle class. A growing middle class also depends on keeping young people in Iowa with a high quality of life and good-paying jobs. While reducing other areas of the budget, we boosted funding for K-12 schools, expanded voluntary preschool, and kept tuition in check at community colleges and state universities. In an effort to keep health care affordable for middle class families, we’ve expanded coverage to all children, required insurance companies to cover the services Iowans expect, and stopped massive rate hikes by insurance companies without explanation.
Our plan to strengthen Iowa’s middle class includes raising state standards so our kids have the skills to succeed in the competitive job market, ensure state funding goes to classrooms, not bureaucrats and continue to ensure every Iowa child has access to health care.
Tags: 2011 Agenda, 2011 growing jobs growing iowa, 2011 House Democrats, Growing Iowa, growing jobs
Category Education, Featured, Health Care, Jobs & Economy, Recent News |
Author: rachellethomas Published: September 14th, 2010
The Iowa Department of Education recently released that Iowa students performed top in the nation on SAT scores, this just after the announcement that Iowa students are 2nd in the nation for ACT scores.
Iowa students continue to perform well on the SAT, the college entrance exam administered by the College Board. With three percent of 2010 graduating seniors taking the exam, the SAT is less predominant in Iowa than the ACT test. Iowa students who take the SAT perform well, however, with the highest composite scores in the nation for reading, math and writing.
- 603 in critical reading, compared to a national mean score of 501;
- 613 in math, compared to a national mean score of 516;
- 582 in writing, compared to a national mean score of 492.
The 10-year change shows a 14-point increase in reading and 13-point increase in math. Decade information is not available for the writing test, which has been administered since 2006.
Tags: Act, act scores, Education, iowa deptartment of education, SAT, SAT scores
Category Education, Featured, Recent News |
Author: rachellethomas Published: September 9th, 2010
The Iowa Department of Education announced today that five Iowa public schools have been identified by the U.S. Department of Education as 2010 Blue Ribbon Schools.
The Iowa schools are:
- Bedford Elementary School, Bedford Community School District, Taylor County
- Kee High School, Eastern Allamakee Community School District, Allamakee County
- Lincoln Elementary School, Cedar Falls Community School District, Blackhawk County
- McKinley Elementary School, Muscatine Community School District, Muscatine County
- West Elementary, Knoxville Community School District, Marion County
The Blue Ribbon award is given to public and private elementary, middle and high schools that show high levels of achievement or have made significant progress in closing the achievement gap. Each year since 1982, the U.S. Department of Education has sought out schools where students attain and maintain high academic goals, including those that beat the odds.
The schools are chosen based on one of two criteria: 1) Schools whose students, regardless of backgrounds, are high performing; and 2) Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve student performance to high levels as measured by the school’s performance on state assessments or nationally-normed tests.
Tags: blue ribbon school, iowa school achievement, iowa schools
Category Education, Featured, Recent News |
