February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for Education

Bid to deny pay hikes to college presidents dies

February 3, 2012 By

A proposal to deny pay raises to the presidents of Iowa, Iowa State and UNI if tuition rates for students go up has died in the Iowa House. Representative Jeremy Taylor, a high school teacher from Sioux City, was pushing the idea.

“There’s an age-old fallacy within education institutions that you either give us more money or students are going to suffer,” Taylor said. “Now I think there is a third-rail and a third option and that option is to look at administrative expense, and the cuts should come from the top.”

A three-member subcommittee rejected Taylor’s bill after more than 20 minutes of discussion on Thursday. Representative Mary Mascher is a Democrat from Iowa City, which is home to the University of Iowa. She told Taylor tuition hikes are really the fault of legislators who’ve failed to provide the state universities enough money.

“You seem to think there isn’t a correlation between what we allocate in the legislature and tuition increases and what I’m telling you there’s a direct relationship,” Mascher said.

Representative Josh Bynes, a Republican Osage, suggested the bill’s death doesn’t mean the “critique” of university administrators is over.

“I realize that this bill has got some heartburn all the way around,” Byrnes said. “I think that sometimes legislation can also be used as raising awareness and I think the awareness piece here on this piece of legislation is that there’s a serious concern about rising tuition costs.”

In December, the board that governs the state universities voted for a 3.75 percent increase in tuition rates for undergraduates who are residents of Iowa. That higher rate goes into effect for the fall semester. This past August the Board of Regents voted to hike the base salaries for the presidents of Iowa, Iowa State and UNI by four percent. UNI president Ben Allen and his wife have donated his salary hike to a university scholarship fund. Iowa State’s president retired in January and his replacement has taken over in Ames.

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Text messages lead to charges against southwest Iowa teacher

February 2, 2012 By

A teacher in southwest Iowa resigned Wednesday after being confronted by school officials about allegations he sent inappropriate text messages and pictures to one of his female students. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says his office was contacted by officials with Lewis Central Community Schools in Council Bluffs.

“Investigators yesterday took a report from a 17-year-old female in reference to her Spanish teacher, 30-year-old Daniel Pantoja.” After reviewing the case, Sheriff Danker says Pantoja will face charges.

“Apparently there was different communication there over the cellphone, texting, and pictures that the investigators discovered,” he says. “The decision was made to charge Mr. Pantoja with sexual exploitation by a school employee, which is a Class D felony, and lascivious conduct with a minor.”

Danker says they’ve spoken with the suspect. Pantoja has an attorney and he plans to turn himself in later today. The sheriff says his bond will be set at $5,000.

By Karla James

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, News

Audit shows cheerleading coach took money meant for trip

February 2, 2012 By

A former high school cheerleading coach in southern Iowa is accused of taking money from an account that was intended to pay for a trip to a college football bowl game. Jacqulynn Baumfalk resigned from the Clarke Community School District after school officials began questioning her handling of funds raised for the cheerleading squads’s trip to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Florida last year.

The results of a special investigation by the State Auditor’s office were released today and Tami Kusian, with the auditor’s office, says they identified over $10,000 in missing money.

“Most of the money that is missing is undeposited collections that were from fundraisers and payments from the parents,” Kusian said. The investigation also found Baumfalk used a district credit card for personal expenses during the trip to Orlando. The auditor’s report has been turned over to the Iowa Attorney General’s office.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, News

Lawmakers raise several concerns in review of education reform bill

February 2, 2012 By

State lawmakers continued to question Department of Education director Jason Glass Wednesday on the various parts of the Governor’s education reform bill. The bill changes the way teachers are let go if there are layoffs, how long new teachers should be on probation, and the recourse a teacher has if he or she is fired.

Glass says it would make performance the first consideration in layoffs instead of seniority. Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City and a retired teacher, told Glass schools are already considering how good a teacher is when they make layoff plans.

“Why are we putting it in statute and deciding if for them,” Steckman asked. “Because performance matters,” Glass replied. “But then you’re taking away the right of the district and the bargaining unit to bargain that,” Steckman answered. “That’s correct, the state would be saying that we’re making a policy decision,” Glass said.

Some lawmakers say if a teacher’s evaluation is going to play major role, they want to feel more comfortable with how those evaluations happen. Improving evaluations is part of the governor’s reform plan, but details aren’t yet worked out.

Representative Jeremy Taylor, a Republican from Sioux City, said that makes him nervous. “So we’re voting on something we haven’t seen which will be a primary determiner?,” Taylor asked. There were also questions about the governor’s plan to keep new teachers on probation for five years instead of three.

Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City who is also a classroom teacher, thinks that’s being too harsh on the newbies.

“You’re saying if you can’t perform you’re out. I’m saying give teachers the time to develop those skills,” Mascher explained. Glass defended another part of the bill that makes it easier to dismiss poor teachers after years on the job.

“We do have ineffective educators in our schools, this is no secret,” Glass said. “And keeping an ineffective educator working in our schools is something no one can reasonably defend.” Glass explained that under the governor’s bill, the process of firing a teacher would be speeded up, and teachers could no longer to go to court to appeal.

Representative Cindy Winckler, a Democrat from Davenport said that the governor and Glass use other states as examples for Iowa to follow, but Iowa is ahead of them. Representative Greg Forristal, a Republican from Macedonia, lost his patience with critics of the bill. “It sounds to me that there are a lot of people who don’t want to make any changes at all, who resist all change,” Forristal said.

The discussion continued later on the plan to hold back third graders who can’t read. Director Glass says schools would get new money to intervene early with kids struggling to read. Representative Taylor asked if a student still can’t read after repeating third grade, would they have to repeat it again, or be passed on.

“This statue only allows for retention using this policy for one year,” Glass replied. He says the governor’s plan puts more responsibility on parents to intervene when a student is struggling with reading. That statement earned applause from one lawmaker who says he’s tired of all the blame going on teachers.

The subcommittee finished going through the entire 156-page bill and it will now go to the full education committee for more discussion.

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Pilot program offers discounted tuition for Iowans at Nebraska school

February 1, 2012 By

Iowans can now get discounted tuition though a new program at the College Center in South Sioux City, Nebraska. The school is a partnership between Northeast Community College and Wayne State College, both in Nebraska. Jay Collier, a spokesman for Wayne State, says the tuition discount program is called The Bridge.

“Our plan was to serve students in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, in that area,” Collier says. “As we were sitting and thinking about the program and thinking about what’s the symbol for this, what do we call it, we settled on The Bridge because the bridge across the Missouri there is really symbolic of the connection between those three states.”

The Bridge is a three-year pilot program and will set undergraduate tuition at the College Center at the in-state rate plus one dollar for students outside Nebraska. “It helps bridge the gap between out-of-state and in-state tuition for our students,” Collier says. “It’s all part of our mission to serve the area and it’s been our intent all along. We’re hoping this will drive enrollment. Sioux City and South Sioux City are one of the fastest growing areas in the country right now, economically, and we want to be part of that.”

He calls it a “very affordable option” for students. The College Center opened in March of 2011 as an educational model unique to Nebraska and the region.

Learn more at: “www.collegecenter.org“

Filed Under: Education, News

Senate Democrats want hike in state aid for public schools

February 1, 2012 By

Senate Democrats are proposing a four percent increase in general state aid for K-12 schools for the school year that begins in the fall of 2013. Senator Brian Schoenjahn, a Democrat from Arlington, says schools are struggling in the current budgeting year.

“It’s zero now and the results have been horrendous out there,” Schoenjahn says. “We’ve laid off teaching staff. We’ve laid off aides. We’re at bare bones in most districts.”

Legislators voted last year to provide a two percent increase in general state aid for schools, starting on July 1 of this year. This proposal increases state support of schools in the following year.

A state law requires legislators to set what’s called “allowable growth” for Iowa schools two years in advance. It’s the main source of state support for K-12 public schools. Governor Terry Branstad, a Republican, says the law should be repealed.

“They should because they’ve ignored it so many times,” Branstad says. “Remember, they ignored it the two previous years before I became governor.”

Senator Schoenjahn is a former teacher at Starmont Community Schools. He says school officials need to start planning now for teacher contract negotiations that start next winter and they won’t know how much state aide they’ll be getting in the 2013/2014 academic year if lawmakers fail to act.

“It hamstrings the districts,” Schoenjahn says, “and I don’t think it’s fair to the districts.”

But Branstad says he wants to wait because he’ll be working with legislators this fall and next winter on a new school funding proposal.

“Next year we intend to address the issues involving teacher compensation, length of the school year and all of those are things and those are things that will require resources,” Branstad says. “But we want to make sure the resources are focused on those things that are going to improve student achievement.”

Despite the Republican governor’s sentiments, Senate Democrats plan to act today on a bill that would provide a four percent increase the general level of state support for school for the academic year that begins in the fall of 2013. The bill is scheduled to be considered by a three-member subcommittee at 11:30 and then at one o’clock the Senate Education Committee plans to debate the bill.

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

IBC “competitive index” shows little movement for Iowa

February 1, 2012 By

The “Iowa Competitiveness Index” compiled by a group of the state’s largest businesses shows no change in 4 of the 5 measures of the state’s economic outlook, and the fifth moved from “improving” to “no significant progress.” Iowa Business Council executive director, Elliott Smith, says the results show an economy that’s idling in place.

“We are really at this juncture seeing no significant changes. We’re kind of stuck in an area where there may be efforts underway and we are making some progress, but relative to all the states, were not seeing to consider ourselves out ahead of the curve in most respects,” Smith explained.

The index looks at: economic growth, education and workforce readiness, governance and fiscal matters, health and well being, and workforce demographics and diversity. While there’s not much movement in the index, Smith says it’s not an indictment of the total system.

He says there are some good things in workforce education and readiness in terms of A-C-T scores and the percentage of the population that’s getting a high school degree. “But on the other hand the percentage of our population that’s getting bachelor’s degree is quite low,” Smith says. “And those are the sort of things that employers are concerned about.”

While the index shows things aren’t changing, there are efforts underway to try and make some changes — such as the governor’s education reform plan. “We’re supportive of the efforts by the governor and the legislature to make progress in that area, it seems as though that’s always just a very hard area to affect any significant change,” Smith says.

He says the IBC is hopeful the effort to improve the reading ability of third graders succeeds along with the effort to get more students more proficient in science and math. “That’s going to be critical,” he says. Smith says the IBC wants to keep the focus on the need to improve.

“We’ve identified some of the problems, there are some initiatives out there which have just sort of launched and we’re anxious to see how early results go, the healthiest states initiative being one of those,” Smith says. “It’s good to just try and create an awareness right now.”

You can see the complete index on the IBC website at: www.iowabusinesscouncil.org.

The Iowa Business Council’s 24 members are the top executives of 20 of the largest businesses in the state, the three state university presidents, and Iowa’s largest banking association.

Filed Under: Business, Education, News
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »