Senate Journal: Page 977: Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  their region by family matters.  These people would be excellent teachers.
  They will
  not be recruited away, and they will teach in schools in their region.

  The University of Northern Iowa and the Des Moines Area Community College
  have such a program in Carroll where DMACC teaches the first two years
  following
  UNI requirements.  The second two years are taught by UNI faculty, both in
  person
  and over the ICN.  Of the twenty-five graduates from this program to date,
  twenty-
  three are teaching in schools in the region.  The program would not require
  new bricks
  and mortar and would only involve some additional personnel.  They could be
  taught
  on community college campuses throughout the state.  It will only be
  successful
  however, if both sectors work together in a cooperative fashion, do not try
  to make the
  program into a profit center, and use bona fide faculty.  If the college
  does not utilize
  instructors who would qualify to teach on their campus, then the programs
  become a
  farce, which must be guarded against.  I strongly recommend that such a
  program be
  put into effect statewide to help address our teacher shortage.

  Additionally, I understand that the teacher shortage is more acute for
  certain
  subjects.  Why not give school boards authority to establish pay
  differentials?  If a
  board determines that they have a special need for a physics teacher, why
  shouldn't the
  board have authority to establish a salary above the level that teacher
  would receive
  under the district's salary schedule?

  I also note increased discussion for school reorganization.  Some schools
  today are
  clearly too small.  I recommend to you the Great Plains Report, which was
  commissioned by the Legislature in 1964.  The last time I checked there was
  one copy
  remaining in the Service Bureau Library.  The report looked at school
  districts and
  concluded that there was an optimum size -- that districts could be too
  large and too
  small.  The per pupil cost was like a bell curve.  Districts that were too
  large or too
  small could be given incentives, beyond what exist today, to merge.  You
  could consider
  county-like districts in rural areas where several districts would be merged
  with one
  superintendent and one board but with multiple attendance centers.  Thus, in
  a rural
  county with four districts predominantly within the county, they could still
  retain their
  four high schools with all the extra-curricular activities remaining in the
  community
  but sharing faculty and even facilities.  There would be some savings, but
  also some
  additional transportation costs.  Students would have the advantage of more
  class
  offerings and better qualified instructors in some instances.

  Lastly, I find myself perplexed by one action, or inaction, of this General
  Assembly.
  Some years ago you created rainy-day funds.  This was even discussed in
  antiquity
  when I was down here, and it should have been enacted then.  You showed
  foresight
  when you created these funds.  What I fail to understand is your failure to
  utilize the
  funds now that there is a downturn in our economy and the state's revenue
  has fallen
  substantially below projections.  While some may think this is not an
  emergency, it
  certainly seems so to me.  Why else create the fund, if not to use when
  revenue dips
  substantially.  When the economy starts to grow again, you can start to
  replenish the
  fund.

  What you must realize is that state programs can certainly be cut, but when
  they
  are, there are repercussions to some of the people.  Sometimes it takes
  years before the
  total impact is understood, but it does have an effect.  For example, cut
  funds to
  prisons, and you are encouraging more overcrowding than we now have and a
  takeover
  by the federal courts.  Cut school aid, and gradually the quality of our
  schools and the

© 2001 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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