Taxes, education dominate Spencer session with lawmakers
By Russ Oechslin, Journal correspondent | Posted: Sunday, January 27, 2008
SPENCER, Iowa -- While veterans' affairs, same-sex marriages, coal-fired power generation and aging issues were brought up by the 60-some attendees at Spencer's Eggs & Issues session with area legislators Saturday, the 90-minute meeting was dominated by discussions on new taxes and education.
Clay Central-Everly school board member Sue Brugman told the lawmakers "that as a group, the school boards in Iowa oppose the prevailing wage," noting that they felt it would be "disastrous to public entities and in particular this will cost the schools a great deal of money -- and we really cannot afford that."
Brugman also noted statewide board support for statewide standards. "Iowa has gone on for a long time as sort of a maverick state without the state standards," she explained. "But things are different now and we are re-inventing the wheel in 364 school districts." She added that one state effort would work better.
Noting that one state effort would be better, Brugman begged to "Please, please, if you give us statewide standards, help us with a reliable assessment tool -- something that's uniform and something that's better than what we have now."
When Sen. David Johnson, of Ocheyedan, told Brugman he agreed with her, she then asked about the physical education requirements that she said keep some athletes from taking advanced courses. Rep. Mike May, of Spirit Lake, also noted that he was concerned about tests that showed about two-thirds of graduating seniors are not ready for college.
Sheldon's Rep. Royd Chambers, who is a teacher in his home district, explained that what the House Education Committee is "concerned with is that we have a high quality of standards, that really are specific and really mean something.
"What we have to protect school districts from, I believe, is the Department of Education -- unfortunately.
"The Department is such a bureaucracy these days that they are invested in the status quo ... They have already prepared a set of draft standards that are so broad that they are meaningless and give no direction to schools districts whatsoever."
A former teacher, May agreed, adding that "the adoption of state standards and benchmarks, a model core curriculum, means absolutely nothing unless there is an appropriate assessment tool.
Also a former teacher, Emmetsburg Rep. Marcie Frevert said she is getting complaints that there are too many tests and not enough classroom time. Frevert cited one teacher who told her there were 14 days of testing in her classroom before Christmas last year, and "too little direct teaching time," especially in the early elementary grades.
"If they want to develop stateside standards I'm going to be watching that the early elementary or the early childhood teachers have direct time to work with children," Frevert added.
Often the most animated member of the Eggs & Issues panel, Emmetsburg Sen. Jack Kibbie reserved his ire for his closing comments that dealt mostly with budgetary issues.
Long an advocate for community colleges, Kibbie shared numbers from the Fiscal Bureau that he said made the community colleges "the step-child in this whole education funding issue."
The report Kibbie cited shows an average $6,936 in state tax money spent for each K-12 student in the state, $11,855 for each public university student, $3,143 for each student attending a private college, and just $2,443 for community college students. "That needs to be changed," he noted.
On the budget, Kibbie continued explaining that, "We hear a lot of conversation about 'the majority party.'" Noting that, "Well it's the first time in 42 years. So all these problems just happened in the last 18 months, I presume," Kibbie drew laughter from the crowd and a quick comment from Chambers about a 10 percent increase in spending
Without skipping a beat, Kibbie said that's what he wanted to talk about, calling attention to a list of Republican amendments that were put onto the budget bills in '07. "The total amount of money is $699 million. And the Senate numbers are $174.5 million added to the numbers -- to make the spending higher!
"You'd think the amendments would have been to lower the spending. But it's not happening."
Pointing to the GOP members of the group, Kibbie shouted that "I've got a pad of paper. And I want these people to put on a pad of paper what line item they want scratched off. I'll put the pad back there and everybody take a whack at the budget."
Kibbie earned the most fervent applause of the morning when he explained that "We're just starting into that process. We're gonna balance this budget. And we're not going to borrow money from China to do it."
The next Eggs & Issues session in Spencer will be Feb. 9, beginning at 9 a.m.
Cosmetologist seeks inspections
Joyce Smith, who operates Design Masters Salon and Day Spa in Spencer and teaches cosmetology at the community college level, called for legislators to mandate that the state health department increase its inspection of barber shops and beauty salons -- as required by Iowa Code.
Smith cited code that requires biannual inspections, along with inspections prior to opening, and upon complaint from the public, but added that "Salons and barber shops have not had inspections for at least 10 years.
"When the public goes into a salon," she explained, "they feel they should be safe. There are salons that are unlicensed salons operating with unlicensed people and there are many salons that are operating that are not following sanitation rules."
Smith said she sees "a problem with skin disorders and the like."
Each licensed salon pays $84. in fees every two years, according to Smith. And each operator pays $60 for biennial licensing as well. With 4,871 salons and14,423 operators licensed in the state, that amounts to over $1.27 million dollars that is going into the general fund, instead of inspections of the properties that generate the revenues, Smith says. "Very little comes back."
Sen. Jack Kibbie drew chuckles from the audience when he noted that most people tell him "we've got too many inspectors out there snooping around," and was interrupted by Rep. Mike May, who operates a motel in Arnolds Park, interject "That would be me."
"If there's a requirement in the law, and there's a problem we can certainly address that. I assume the first answer we're going to get is 'well you never give us any money,' and the next thing is 'we're always being criticized for having too many state employees now' and 'the budget is going busting out at the seams,'" Kibbie continued.
The senator likened the situation to restaurant inspections that are required for each establishment once a year. "And they're not able to get there because of the shortage of money," he said.
Clay Central-Everly school board member Sue Brugman told the lawmakers "that as a group, the school boards in Iowa oppose the prevailing wage," noting that they felt it would be "disastrous to public entities and in particular this will cost the schools a great deal of money -- and we really cannot afford that."
Brugman also noted statewide board support for statewide standards. "Iowa has gone on for a long time as sort of a maverick state without the state standards," she explained. "But things are different now and we are re-inventing the wheel in 364 school districts." She added that one state effort would work better.
Noting that one state effort would be better, Brugman begged to "Please, please, if you give us statewide standards, help us with a reliable assessment tool -- something that's uniform and something that's better than what we have now."
When Sen. David Johnson, of Ocheyedan, told Brugman he agreed with her, she then asked about the physical education requirements that she said keep some athletes from taking advanced courses. Rep. Mike May, of Spirit Lake, also noted that he was concerned about tests that showed about two-thirds of graduating seniors are not ready for college.
Sheldon's Rep. Royd Chambers, who is a teacher in his home district, explained that what the House Education Committee is "concerned with is that we have a high quality of standards, that really are specific and really mean something.
"What we have to protect school districts from, I believe, is the Department of Education -- unfortunately.
"The Department is such a bureaucracy these days that they are invested in the status quo ... They have already prepared a set of draft standards that are so broad that they are meaningless and give no direction to schools districts whatsoever."
A former teacher, May agreed, adding that "the adoption of state standards and benchmarks, a model core curriculum, means absolutely nothing unless there is an appropriate assessment tool.
Also a former teacher, Emmetsburg Rep. Marcie Frevert said she is getting complaints that there are too many tests and not enough classroom time. Frevert cited one teacher who told her there were 14 days of testing in her classroom before Christmas last year, and "too little direct teaching time," especially in the early elementary grades.
"If they want to develop stateside standards I'm going to be watching that the early elementary or the early childhood teachers have direct time to work with children," Frevert added.
Often the most animated member of the Eggs & Issues panel, Emmetsburg Sen. Jack Kibbie reserved his ire for his closing comments that dealt mostly with budgetary issues.
Long an advocate for community colleges, Kibbie shared numbers from the Fiscal Bureau that he said made the community colleges "the step-child in this whole education funding issue."
The report Kibbie cited shows an average $6,936 in state tax money spent for each K-12 student in the state, $11,855 for each public university student, $3,143 for each student attending a private college, and just $2,443 for community college students. "That needs to be changed," he noted.
On the budget, Kibbie continued explaining that, "We hear a lot of conversation about 'the majority party.'" Noting that, "Well it's the first time in 42 years. So all these problems just happened in the last 18 months, I presume," Kibbie drew laughter from the crowd and a quick comment from Chambers about a 10 percent increase in spending
Without skipping a beat, Kibbie said that's what he wanted to talk about, calling attention to a list of Republican amendments that were put onto the budget bills in '07. "The total amount of money is $699 million. And the Senate numbers are $174.5 million added to the numbers -- to make the spending higher!
"You'd think the amendments would have been to lower the spending. But it's not happening."
Pointing to the GOP members of the group, Kibbie shouted that "I've got a pad of paper. And I want these people to put on a pad of paper what line item they want scratched off. I'll put the pad back there and everybody take a whack at the budget."
Kibbie earned the most fervent applause of the morning when he explained that "We're just starting into that process. We're gonna balance this budget. And we're not going to borrow money from China to do it."
The next Eggs & Issues session in Spencer will be Feb. 9, beginning at 9 a.m.
Cosmetologist seeks inspections
Joyce Smith, who operates Design Masters Salon and Day Spa in Spencer and teaches cosmetology at the community college level, called for legislators to mandate that the state health department increase its inspection of barber shops and beauty salons -- as required by Iowa Code.
Smith cited code that requires biannual inspections, along with inspections prior to opening, and upon complaint from the public, but added that "Salons and barber shops have not had inspections for at least 10 years.
"When the public goes into a salon," she explained, "they feel they should be safe. There are salons that are unlicensed salons operating with unlicensed people and there are many salons that are operating that are not following sanitation rules."
Smith said she sees "a problem with skin disorders and the like."
Each licensed salon pays $84. in fees every two years, according to Smith. And each operator pays $60 for biennial licensing as well. With 4,871 salons and14,423 operators licensed in the state, that amounts to over $1.27 million dollars that is going into the general fund, instead of inspections of the properties that generate the revenues, Smith says. "Very little comes back."
Sen. Jack Kibbie drew chuckles from the audience when he noted that most people tell him "we've got too many inspectors out there snooping around," and was interrupted by Rep. Mike May, who operates a motel in Arnolds Park, interject "That would be me."
"If there's a requirement in the law, and there's a problem we can certainly address that. I assume the first answer we're going to get is 'well you never give us any money,' and the next thing is 'we're always being criticized for having too many state employees now' and 'the budget is going busting out at the seams,'" Kibbie continued.
The senator likened the situation to restaurant inspections that are required for each establishment once a year. "And they're not able to get there because of the shortage of money," he said.
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Nick wrote on Jan 27, 2008 5:26 PM:
Dennis The Menace wrote on Jan 27, 2008 12:23 PM: