House Journal: Page 38: Tuesday, January 11, 2000
well-educated people. Past success does not justify a lack of action. Declining test
scores warn us of the price of complacency.
To reverse that decline, emphasis must be placed on early childhood education.
Iowa must be the leader, a nationally recognized leader in early childhood education.
Brain research now proves the importance of the first years of life in the learning
process. In Iowa, parents will be their child’s first and best teacher. In Iowa, child care
providers will recognize their important role in the learning process.
Our children are entitled to a great start. We propose increased funding of $5.2
million - through out empowerment communities - to improve early childhood
education and additional resources to provide greater access to quality child care. Let
us pledge together to rewrite the nation’s number one educational goal. Today it reads
that every child should be ready to learn by the time he or she reaches kindergarten.
Tomorrow, let it read that in Iowa, as a result of our efforts, every child shall begin
learning at birth and be ready to learn more by the time he or she reaches
kindergarten.
As children enter Iowa schools, they will experience smaller class sizes and well-
wired schools. But, a great education requires more. Poorly paid teachers and
crumbling school buildings undermine our past efforts to improve educational
opportunity. Today, I announce an acceleration and expansion of our efforts to recruit,
educate and retain quality teachers. In the real world, we continue to lose many of our
brightest and our best teachers to other states, who offer incentives or higher pay or to
other professions that do likewise. We can no longer afford to ignore the competition.
Officials at the University of Northern Iowa and many of the private colleges know all
too well how many potentially good teachers we lose each year.
First, I am asking the Council on Continuous Improvement in Education to make
recommendations for revising the manner in which we compensate teachers to enable
Iowa to be competitive for quality and to report to me by the end of this year. Second,
I’m asking you to establish a fund to create an incentive for one or more school districts
to develop and implement a model teacher compensation system. Third, I’m asking you
to approve a tax credit program for three years that will help school districts now,
particularly in rural areas, that are having a difficult time recruiting quality teachers
to their districts to do so. Finally, I am asking you to adopt changes in IPERS,
including the Rule of 85, that will enable teachers interested in retiring to do so. These
retirements will free up resources that must be used to increase teacher compensation.
It is time to get serious about teacher pay.
Our children can not afford to wait any longer for us to act. These steps will enable
us to better compete for talent, but we must not stop there. We must increase funding
for the teacher induction program that will ensure statewide application of a mentoring
program for first-year teachers. Extensive mentoring results in higher teacher
satisfaction, which in turn means better retention of quality teachers. After investing
so much in quality teachers, we can not afford to lose them after only a few years of
teaching.
Quality teachers with smaller classes and up-to-date technology mean little if
school buildings are unsafe or are in poor condition. Iowa remains one of only ten
states that fails to provide any direct assistance to districts for building maintenance,
repair or construction. Our state ought to provide resources to school districts faced
© 2000 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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