From the threat to Iowa schools from the private voucher bill. We tied the threat to rural schools to the threat to the survival of rural communities and just said it was bad for Iowa. No nuance. A group of rural progressives published the following letter in about 5+ rural newspapers in 5 counties in north central Iowa
Dear Editor:
Public education – Part of the ABCs of democracy
Rural Iowans value public education. We know that regardless of race, religion, or zip code all Iowa children deserve access to a quality education. We write because the current Iowa education policies of diverting public dollars to private, often faith-based schools, while underfunding all public schools, are hurting rural Iowans.
The school is the heartbeat of a rural community, and we have all seen what happens to small communities when the school closes. Over a period of years the towns become shadows of themselves and may eventually disappear.
Rather than passing legislation to preserve our rural communities, to give them “Freedom to Flourish,” Gov. Reynolds and the majority of Republican legislators are making no attempts to revitalize rural Iowa.
They are, in fact, hastening the demise of small, rural towns.
Iowa communities of any size dry up without healthy public schools. Local schools already feel the negative impact of Reynolds’ School Choice law. Public schools are the only schools in 43 of Iowa’s 99 counties. The state tax dollars residents of those counties pay are being shifted to counties in which there are private (usually faith-based) schools.
Instead of helping students in our rural public schools, and sustaining our rural communities, our tax dollars are being sent to more populated areas.
Private schools have no public oversight via elected school boards. Since their records are not subject to open records scrutiny and their governance is not subject to open meetings laws, taxpayers/citizens have no way to verify the education quality or school operations. Private schools, if they don’t use the State of Iowa for accreditation, don’t even need to hire licensed teachers.
An ongoing concern impacting rural Iowa is a shortage of teachers. Private schools are able to hire teachers away from smaller rural schools, since their pay scales may be better than in those smaller public schools. That will make it more difficult for rural schools to hire the teachers needed to obtain state accreditation, moving the school one step closer to consolidation.
A value of Iowa and a free country is access to public education, comparable across geographic and demographic lines.
Gov Reynolds’ School Choice law hurts rural Iowa. It is a hindrance to small towns flourishing.
We believe rural Iowans share these concerns. Contact your legislators and tell them to support public education not just with words, but with finances.
Signed by
Ralph Rosenberg, Ames, and Barbara Wheelock, Ames, on behalf of PRO Iowa 24 – a group of concerned rural Iowans with progressive values from Greene, Guthrie, Boone, Story and Dallas counties
I loved the pub in St. Louis. But I really do think I did love the pub in Shreveport, where a lesbian, chaplain, I think, singing and playing guitar, was signing Piano Man. Where I was taught to have to smoke by a med student Psychiatrist and some chick named Mona while learning to have to play darts. And of course, the Presidio. We were really neither pub nor bar. Later I was discovered into Moose Drool Black and looping chalupa Animal Farm. In deed. It all really was a concert to hear DCD return to reunite, is it, in Catalonia or Catalinas, stranded days, a couple, by Hurricane Sandy? All quite a bucket of water, World, after all. Yes, edited, small world. And, no, to EPCOT, never even crossed my mind, until I was asked directly by some internally decapitated something alien something and something about Mona Mona Mona again and something. It has all been quite...
But can I write and speak aloud, "I had a farm in Africa..." in such rural? That is all I need to know.
Look man, I just need to know one thing.
Special Archives, again, Pius XII Memorial. I will need dual, not due nor propaganda, complete silence, like a broom closet, rural and urban. Like Saint Rose, Francis' favorite, who envisioned your region, Jess, from another, not planet, but continent.
She had slept under the stairwell with her actual heirloom tomatoes brought from France by Hebert, Nova Scotia. Oh the scandal, a nun in the morning and at night, sleeping under a stairwell with heirlooms.
And , just one more question, Jess, are their any needles in the haystacks?
From the threat to Iowa schools from the private voucher bill. We tied the threat to rural schools to the threat to the survival of rural communities and just said it was bad for Iowa. No nuance. A group of rural progressives published the following letter in about 5+ rural newspapers in 5 counties in north central Iowa
Dear Editor:
Public education – Part of the ABCs of democracy
Rural Iowans value public education. We know that regardless of race, religion, or zip code all Iowa children deserve access to a quality education. We write because the current Iowa education policies of diverting public dollars to private, often faith-based schools, while underfunding all public schools, are hurting rural Iowans.
The school is the heartbeat of a rural community, and we have all seen what happens to small communities when the school closes. Over a period of years the towns become shadows of themselves and may eventually disappear.
Rather than passing legislation to preserve our rural communities, to give them “Freedom to Flourish,” Gov. Reynolds and the majority of Republican legislators are making no attempts to revitalize rural Iowa.
They are, in fact, hastening the demise of small, rural towns.
Iowa communities of any size dry up without healthy public schools. Local schools already feel the negative impact of Reynolds’ School Choice law. Public schools are the only schools in 43 of Iowa’s 99 counties. The state tax dollars residents of those counties pay are being shifted to counties in which there are private (usually faith-based) schools.
Instead of helping students in our rural public schools, and sustaining our rural communities, our tax dollars are being sent to more populated areas.
Private schools have no public oversight via elected school boards. Since their records are not subject to open records scrutiny and their governance is not subject to open meetings laws, taxpayers/citizens have no way to verify the education quality or school operations. Private schools, if they don’t use the State of Iowa for accreditation, don’t even need to hire licensed teachers.
An ongoing concern impacting rural Iowa is a shortage of teachers. Private schools are able to hire teachers away from smaller rural schools, since their pay scales may be better than in those smaller public schools. That will make it more difficult for rural schools to hire the teachers needed to obtain state accreditation, moving the school one step closer to consolidation.
A value of Iowa and a free country is access to public education, comparable across geographic and demographic lines.
Gov Reynolds’ School Choice law hurts rural Iowa. It is a hindrance to small towns flourishing.
We believe rural Iowans share these concerns. Contact your legislators and tell them to support public education not just with words, but with finances.
Signed by
Ralph Rosenberg, Ames, and Barbara Wheelock, Ames, on behalf of PRO Iowa 24 – a group of concerned rural Iowans with progressive values from Greene, Guthrie, Boone, Story and Dallas counties
I loved the pub in St. Louis. But I really do think I did love the pub in Shreveport, where a lesbian, chaplain, I think, singing and playing guitar, was signing Piano Man. Where I was taught to have to smoke by a med student Psychiatrist and some chick named Mona while learning to have to play darts. And of course, the Presidio. We were really neither pub nor bar. Later I was discovered into Moose Drool Black and looping chalupa Animal Farm. In deed. It all really was a concert to hear DCD return to reunite, is it, in Catalonia or Catalinas, stranded days, a couple, by Hurricane Sandy? All quite a bucket of water, World, after all. Yes, edited, small world. And, no, to EPCOT, never even crossed my mind, until I was asked directly by some internally decapitated something alien something and something about Mona Mona Mona again and something. It has all been quite...
But can I write and speak aloud, "I had a farm in Africa..." in such rural? That is all I need to know.
Look man, I just need to know one thing.
Special Archives, again, Pius XII Memorial. I will need dual, not due nor propaganda, complete silence, like a broom closet, rural and urban. Like Saint Rose, Francis' favorite, who envisioned your region, Jess, from another, not planet, but continent.
She had slept under the stairwell with her actual heirloom tomatoes brought from France by Hebert, Nova Scotia. Oh the scandal, a nun in the morning and at night, sleeping under a stairwell with heirlooms.
And , just one more question, Jess, are their any needles in the haystacks?