Democrats contend republicans intend to spend more on Iowa schools. Financial experts say the state should collect about 82 million more in taxes than had been expected, and Senate Democrat Leader Michael Gronstal of Council Bluffs suggests that’s money republicans may spend on schools. Gronstal says there’s still an opportunity to provide more resources to Iowa school kids. But Senate Republican leader Stewart Iverson of Dows makes it clear that’s not going to happen. Iverson says “that’s a good rumor, but it’s not true.” House Speaker Christopher Rants, a republican from Sioux City, shares similar sentiments. Rants says republicans do not have a “secret plan” to spend more on education. Republicans want any unexpected tax money the state collects to go into the cash reserve. The republican spending plan cleared the Senate Tuesday night and will be debate in the House next Tuesday……..The University of Iowa Medical School’s among the top in a new listing of the nation’s top graduate schools. Chief among the grad schools ranked by U.S. News and World Report are medical schools, rated separately for research and patient care, and while the U-of-I Med Center’s tied for 28th in the research category, University Hospitals are ninth in the nation for primary care. In the category of Health, the University’s number-one in speech-language pathology, number two in training in audiology and physician’s assistants, and third in rehabilitation counseling. The magazine’s other rankings put Iowa at eleventh place in colleges of education and its Tippie School of Business Administration tied for 47th among business schools. The only other place the state makes the U.S. News rankings is Iowa State University’s showing among the nation’s top colleges of engineering.
