Protect our greatest resource

Once again, Governor Vilsack and a few state legislators in a special “governance committee” are threatening Iowa’s greatest assets, her rural schools. If they want to encourage us to cooperate and share resources, why don’t they just ask? Why do they have to threaten us with forced consolidation or elimination?

Iowa's 367 districts are already under extreme pressure to increase academic standards. I appreciate that Vilsack and “Tommy’s Dozen” want the state to take over more of the cost of public schools from local property taxpayers.

According to a Monday, March 21 story in the Des Moines Register*, Vilsack and the legislators concocted a school plan last week while talking about efficiency of state and local government. It’s all fine and good for county and local governments to share services, and I’m even in favor of neighboring schools cooperating and pooling resources, but why does the “governance committee” have any business meddling in the future of Iowa public schools?

Part of it has to do with the fact that schools have traditionally been supported by property taxes, but Vilsak and the governance committee want to cut those taxes for commercial and industrial property owners. I suppose that they don’t think that farmers and homeowners bear enough of the burden.

Tommy’s Dozen want to have a commission “study the issue,” and recommend a minimum size for school districts to the 2007 Legislature.

Could you imagine students living within two miles of Dunlap having to drive to Castana to their county high school? Could you imagine students living within two miles of Ute having to drive in to Denison? Kids in Dunlap would have to drive to Mondaiman.

Charter Oak-Ute wouldn’t have an opportunity to win another state basketball title, there won’t be a Charter Oak-Ute. I know one COU graduate who became a university dean, another is the student body president of one of the states universities. You can’t tell me that small schools don’t offer opportunities and challenge their students in ways that even large schools can’t.

According to the Register Vilsack thinks that high schools with under 200 students should reorganize. If they did, he thinks that the new super-districts could pay teachers more, buy more computers and offer more of advanced math and science classes.

Get real. By having fewer schools, they’d cut expenses. What they’d really do is; layoff teachers and increase student-teacher ratios, cannibalize the obsolete computers of the axed districts for the new bigger-districts, and complain that not enough students qualify to take more advanced math and science classes.

More than a third of Iowa's 365 high schools have less than 200 students. Iowa’s proud tradition of educational excellence was forged in the one-room school house. Small schools are our foundation.

We’ve gone through this before. It seems like every few years, somebody wants to snuff out small schools.

There’s nothing wrong with pooling resources, and establishing regional academies so that students can take advanced placement classes that otherwise wouldn’t be offered at their school. But why are schools even considered an easy way to cut costs. Shouldn’t our children be where we want to focus the lion’s share of our resources?

They want to threaten that if small schools don’t show enough progress at sharing resources, they’ll be forced into regional districts. Sharing teachers, superintendents, transportation, food service and maintenance operations aren’t bad ideas, but why do I suspect that there are those who are just looking for an excuse to cut out the small schools?

I’ve admired the valiant efforts that so many legislators (led by our own) are engaging in to encourage business development in Iowa with things like the Iowa values Fund. It’s time that we apply the same kind of creativity, enthusiasm and tenacity to protecting and promoting our state’s greatest resource- small schools.

*Panel urges schools to share
The legislative committee supports a minimum size for school districts. March 22, 2005