Senate Journal: Page 168: Thursday, January 28, 1999

  No-one is more important to me than Iowa's children.  So when Alexandra
  Swanson, a third-grader from Beaver Creek Elementary School in Johnston
  wrote to
  me I paid attention, and so should we all.

  Let me rephrase her question for the benefit of the assembled body, "What
  are we
  going to do?"

  I come here to the General Assembly for the first time.  It is a time filled
  with
  excitement and a little concern. Concern that I do the right thing.  I've
  never done this
  before. When you do something for the first time, you prepare as best you
  can to get the
  best information and advice that you can, you make our best judgments, then
  the
  moment comes.  You do something for the first time.

  I can't help but reflect today on the significance and importance of "
  firsts" in our
  lives.  First steps.  Our first day of school.  Our first experience with
  faith.  That first
  job.  Our first love.  The first time that we look into the eyes of a
  newborn child.  They
  are memorable experiences.  They open doorways to new worlds that we have
  never
  even dreamed of.  And they all mark new beginnings.

  Here in America and here in Iowa, first has another meaning to us as well.
  We
  have an innate drive to be the best we can be - to finish first in
  everything we attempt.
  We see it as a duty; as a responsibility.  Finishing first marks the
  culmination of our
  best efforts and of our dreams.  In a sense it marks both an ending and at
  the same
  time a new beginning.

  As I present my budget to you for the first time, I urge you to join me in a
  pursuit of
  a prairie full of firsts.  What must we do together to ensure that Iowa will
  be first in
  education for our children; first in environmental quality; first in health
  care for our
  citizens; first in the fight against methamphetamine; first in workforce
  development
  and economic development, and first in the future?

  The answer, it seems to me, is to begin by taking bold first steps into the
  future.
  We have a strong and proud educational heritage in Iowa, and we have
  identified
  ourselves, rightfully so,  as the Education State.  So I ask you, members of
  the General
  Assembly, isn't it time that we again assume our rightful position in this
  nation as first
  in education?

  We are blessed with a core of committed educators, some of who are with us
  today.
  Let me introduce you to four of them. On sabbatical from her position as a
  teacher of
  Theatre at East High School, currently performing in the Des Moines
  Playhouse
  production of Having Our Say, we welcome and salute the 1998 Iowa Teacher of
  the
  Year, Ruth Ann Gaines. We are also proud to have the dedicated Moulton
  School
  mentor of inner city students who was chosen to represent our state at the
  1997
  President's Summit for America's Future, Aaron Smith. We welcome today to
  the
  Capitol the southern Iowa native who refused to allow his cerebral palsy to
  prevent
  him from doing hundreds of classroom presentations as the Energy Wizard,
  winning
  the Governor's Very Special Arts Service Award and the Iowa Energy Educator
  of the
  Year Award, Erik Anderson.  And finally, we introduce the classroom teacher
  of
  Alexandra Swanson and her classmates from the Beaver Creek Elementary
  School,
  Ms. Shannon Smith.  Join me in greeting these four uniquely excellent Iowa
  educators
  and in welcoming Alexandra and her classmates.

© 1999 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments about this site or page? sjourn@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: Fri Jan 29 13:40:38 CST 1999
URL: /DOCS/GA/78GA/Session.1/SJournal/00100/00168.html
jhf