13 SCHOOL SOLUTIONS FOR SENATOR PAUL McKINLEY

Greetings, Senator Paul McKinley and all:

In your Aug 26 newsletter you finally admitted failure of billions of school funding you always supported:

"Over the past decade, Iowa’s standing in education has stagnated or diminished significantly compared to the rest of the country. Simultaneously, we have spent billions of dollars on an annual basis and yet have not achieved the results our students deserve and parents and taxpayers expect.

As an end result, we are leaving our students at a growing disadvantage in this increasingly more competitive global marketplace."

But you offered no meaningful solutions—and as a result, you will continue to vote for more school funding, for whatever cockamamie reasons the evil SEA teacher’s union, or Jason Glass and his constructivist, blame the students for failure ilk, concoct.  Same old, same old!!

Here are 13 solutions you must support or expect to be ousted in the next election.

1.    Hold legislators accountable for public school performance

2.    Give all parents vouchers, useable for private schools, and equal to the amount of total state aid per student—especially for those students now classified as special education students

3.    Rescind Chapter 20 of the Iowa Code, so poor teachers can be removed from classrooms

4.    Make school state rankings in reading, math and science, for grades 3, 4, 6, 8, & 11--easy to find on the DE website. 

5.    Adopt the 95^th National Percentile Rank as the state standard—so all will know how Iowa students and schools compare Internationally—and can leave the public schools with vouchers if performance deadlines and oversight fail to meet those standards.

6.    Require all state funded universities to effectively teach teachers ALL five essential, scientific components for teaching reading—and to teach the essentials for teaching math as well. 

7.    Outlaw, find and heavily penalize public school cheating—so schools are operated as honestly as Iowa Casinos

8.    Decertify the ISEA teacher’s union—to clean up schools and Iowa politics as well

9.    Prevent students from having weak or poor teachers, for two or more consecutive grades—to reduce the number of students classified as special education students--by at least 60%, within 4 years. 

10. Stop funding failed teacher training, mandatory kindergarten, preschool, smaller class size, higher teacher pay and special education to save at least $400 million net, annually.  

11. Eliminate all AEA’s and save at least $350 million net, annually.

12. Annually report to legislators AND THE PUBLIC the rankings of all schools in the state AND how those rankings relate to international standards, AND what remedies are being taken for those schools struggling to achieve these standards.  Remind everyone of the consequences for failure to achieve international standards (after the Legislature and Governor set them)

13. Accomplish all of the above and save at least $1 billion net annually, and raise average student achievement by 2 grade levels within 4 years—or replace the Governor, DE Director and all legislators assigned to the Education and Appropriations Committees—and all members of the State Board of Education and Board of Educational Examiners as well—to show there are consequences for Iowa public school failures. 

Sincerely,

Iowalive   A growing network of volunteer citizens and professionals for improving Iowa