Smaller is Better

Years ago when I was in college to become a teacher and dating an Iowan, I was impressed with Iowa. Iowa was famous for the high quality of its education. Iowa was known for quality schools, quality teachers, and successful students. Oh that it were still so. Schools are struggling to stay open, good teachers are leaving our profession in droves in hopes of making a better living. Students have taken on a fatalistic attitude, believing that they haven’t got much of a future and if they do, it must be in a bigger city in another state.

Boyer Valley and Maple Valley passed bond issues to build new facilities, but they’re freezing budgets and cutting their staffs and programs. East Monona is facing its extinction. What challenges does Charter Oak-Ute have to face?

The best thing Iowa has always had going for it is size. Smaller is better. There seems to be an idea going around that we should eliminate all Class 1A schools (any under 2-300 students). Some people see the natural evolution being that there should only be one public high school per county.

In California parents are adamantly fighting to reduce class sizes. The idea being that a lower teacher-to-student ration means more individual attention. The Glory of Iowa was the one-room schoolhouse.

In a March 31, 2003 Editorial, the Des Moines Register argued that we could offer students a broader variety of elective courses if the smallest schools were merged into regional Über -schools. Students get lost in huge institutions. Teachers and administrators become bureaucrats.

More students have more opportunity to be involved in more extracurricular activities, in smaller schools. Students who might never have been in Student Government, plays, Band, or Cheer and Drill at a school of over a thousand students are often involved in not just one but two or three of these activities in a school of 200 or less. Athletes who’s ride the bench along with fifty other third-stringers get to be starters at small schools. Simply put, would you rather your child be a little fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a little pond?

Small schools can broaden their offerings in a number of ways. The best could be simply by partnering with our small towns and small businesses. Internships, field trips, workshops, seminars, clinics, work study programs, these are all things that non licensed teachers can offer and if they do, they will benefit as much as the students. Hospitals, nursing homes, caterers, retailers, accountants, manufacturers and machine shops all have something to offer.

Another way would be for neighboring school districts to cooperate with one another. In suburban Phoenix, some schools operate as "magnet" schools. In other words, if there are three schools within so many miles of each other, one may have a great Fine Arts program, (music, drama, etc), another may have the strongest Industrial-Ed program, still another might offer the most advanced computer courses. By coordinating their schedules, students enrolled at one school can shuttle to another to take classes not offered at their own school.

Not to mention the satellite video learning network already in place. Students who’s school only has a French teacher can take Spanish classes in the ICN room (Iowa Communications Network).

The Register made the argument against their own position by accusing proponents of smaller schools of measuring "quality more by dedication of the staff, sense of community and safety, low dropout rates" and better ACT scores.

There is a way to help maintain and maybe even improve small schools. There is legislation in the Statehouse right now that hopes to help get a fairer share of money to smaller schools and cut your property taxes in the process. Many communities fund their schools through property taxes. This leads to serious differences in the quality of school building and resources. In the L.A. area for example, Beverly Hills has much nicer facilities than Compton. It’s not because of segregation, it’s because properties in Beverly Hills are more valuable, so there are higher tax revenues in their school district. Poverty breeds poverty.

House File 626 will level the playing field. After a small increase in state wide sales tax provides property tax relief it’s revenues will go into a pool and distributed to all schools on a per student basis. Advocates claim that this will help guarantee a good education for kids, regardless of their family’s income level, or where they live.

Please write your State Representatives and Senators and ask them to fight and vote for "Infrastructure Equity and Property Tax Relief.