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Kim Reynolds got her revenge on public education, at the expense of vital teacher training
IOWA VIEW
Kim Reynolds got her revenge on public education, at the expense of vital teacher training
When money gets tight, superintendents and school boards will have to save dollars by choosing between increasing class sizes or by reducing teacher training. Keeping classes small will win.
Ted Stilwill ~ Guest columnist
... Whether you know it or not, Iowa’s governor and Legislature just delivered that kind of blow to the support system for Iowa’ teachers and principals. You might not have thought it was a big deal when the legislation that greatly reduced the effectiveness of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies passed last month.
...
Why is the new AEA legislation a problem? When the governor and the Legislature passed the 2024 Area Education Agency legislation, it takes the funding from instructional services and technology in AEAs and gives it to school districts to spend however they choose. While many districts will still use the funds to purchase training from AEAs for the first few years, that commitment won’t last through difficult budget times, which are coming soon.
When times get tough and money gets tight, superintendents and school boards will have to save dollars by choosing between increasing class sizes or by reducing teacher training. Keeping classes smaller will win. School districts, even the big ones, don’t have the capacity for continuing teacher development without AEAs. Eventually, the teachers will suffer and so will the kids. A support system for teachers that got better and more consistent over 50 years will largely fade away.
If anyone writes the history of this decline, it will start with a governor who paid for a phony study to find a way to attack and decimate a part of the public education system that most people did not fully understand. She did it in retribution for public education’s earlier resistance to her efforts to provide public money to private schools.
She got even, but generations of kids will pay the price.
...https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2024/04/16/teacher-training-threatened-iowa-under-aea-law-kim-reynolds/73338245007/
Kim Reynolds got her revenge on public education, at the expense of vital teacher training
When money gets tight, superintendents and school boards will have to save dollars by choosing between increasing class sizes or by reducing teacher training. Keeping classes small will win.
Ted Stilwill ~ Guest columnist
... Whether you know it or not, Iowa’s governor and Legislature just delivered that kind of blow to the support system for Iowa’ teachers and principals. You might not have thought it was a big deal when the legislation that greatly reduced the effectiveness of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies passed last month.
...
Why is the new AEA legislation a problem? When the governor and the Legislature passed the 2024 Area Education Agency legislation, it takes the funding from instructional services and technology in AEAs and gives it to school districts to spend however they choose. While many districts will still use the funds to purchase training from AEAs for the first few years, that commitment won’t last through difficult budget times, which are coming soon.
When times get tough and money gets tight, superintendents and school boards will have to save dollars by choosing between increasing class sizes or by reducing teacher training. Keeping classes smaller will win. School districts, even the big ones, don’t have the capacity for continuing teacher development without AEAs. Eventually, the teachers will suffer and so will the kids. A support system for teachers that got better and more consistent over 50 years will largely fade away.
If anyone writes the history of this decline, it will start with a governor who paid for a phony study to find a way to attack and decimate a part of the public education system that most people did not fully understand. She did it in retribution for public education’s earlier resistance to her efforts to provide public money to private schools.
She got even, but generations of kids will pay the price.
...https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2024/04/16/teacher-training-threatened-iowa-under-aea-law-kim-reynolds/73338245007/