This file contains STRIKE and UNDERSCORE. If you cannot see either STRIKE or UNDERSCORE attributes or would like to change how these attributes are displayed, please use the following form to make the desired changes.

House Journal: Page 1965: Wednesday, April 22, 1998

will have a kindergarten class next year or a first grade class
next year. And every school district needs teachers. This whole
focus that we had on early childhood is the beginning of a
five-year commitment and 25 or 30 million dollars in this year's
appropriation. It's not just money, but looking at this system
that takes parents and people in education and people that
provide children's services, and collaborating and working
together. You know I have four young children. My oldest son
just started kindergarten this year. And I was able to attend
one of the parent-teacher conferences, I missed a couple of
them, from being down here. But up on the wall in the
kindergarten classroom are little book  worms and there's a
scale from 1 to 100. Every time a child in the class had a book
read by the parents the worm would move up to 100. As I talked
to the teacher about a month ago, all the kids that are at 100
are reading. The ones that are still at 25 or 30 aren't. That
proves to me how important parents are in the whole process.
Next year when my son starts first grade and he reads, he and
the other kids that can read are going to be better off than
those that can't. So we just started this early childhood
program this year and put a major focus on it. Then when you
piggy-back that with K through 3 grants to extend that to those
critical early years. And then to top it off, this health
insurance program for the uninsured kids in this state. That
issue, those three things, didn't receive a lot of publicity
this year. Maybe it didn't because there was agreement between
us all. It was bipartisan or non-partisan so it didn't make the
front pages like some of the other issues that we discussed in
the last one hundred and one days. But I think that what we have
done in that area will have the most long-lasting effect of this
legislative session.

We looked at trying to improve the quality of teachers.
Representative Mascher, you may think I sit up here and never
listen to what some of the members say, but I remember on one of
the debates you said this more than once. A teacher has a
calling, as a profession, and they are people who care about the
kids. But the salaries aren't working. We raise the salaries and
provide them some merit pay and some national board incentives,
and internships and mentorships. So, if I take a point of
personal privilege now to the governor, Governor, I've been one
of your quarterbacks up here for the last six years. In the last
six years and the last ten years before that... sixteen years,
you've called a lot of plays, called most of the plays. But once
in awhile the legislature has to call an audible. This is a good
bill.  We did a good job on education reform. And I encourage
you to sign the bill. We oftentimes get criticized that the
legislature panders to the voters. But if you look at the impact
they had on that issue, those people that have benefited, those
little rug rats, can't even vote. So I hope that dispels some of
the myth out there in some people's minds that the only thing
legislators do is pass legislation that gets them votes.

Education wasn't the only issue. Tax cuts and the budget for
this biennium two years in a row now. That makes it four years
in a row. And as I told my caucus Monday, out of the thousands
of people that have served in the legislature, the only ones I
can say that cut taxes four years in a row are sitting at the
chairs in this chamber right now. That's a nice compliment given
all the years the legislature has met.

We've heard this word legacy a lot this year. I don't really
care about legacies. 

© 1998 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments about this site or page? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.
Please remember that the person listed above does not vote on bills. Direct all comments concerning legislation to State Legislators.

Last update: Tue Apr 28 03:40:02 CDT 1998
URL: /DOCS/GA/77GA/Session.2/HJournal/01900/01965.html
jhf