1. Supplemental State Aid (SSA)
The school aid formula is the biggest driver in providing resources for a high-quality education that translates to a successful future for our students and economic growth in our state. A school’s general fund supports a high-quality teacher workforce, critical for student achievement. We support state policies on supplemental state aid rate that:
- Sufficiently supports the ability of local districts to meet parent and community expectations and provide a world-class education for all students.
- Provides the resources to recruit and retain a high-quality teacher and staff workforce.
- Incorporates inflation and cost-of-living increases to minimize the negative impact on a district’s general fund from these increased costs.
2. Local Accountability and Decision-Making
Locally elected school board members are closely connected to students, their families, and the communities in which they live, and are in the best position to understand student needs and identify effective solutions. Restrictive limitations on decision-making authority inhibit innovation, efficiency, and the ability of school boards to make locally based decisions about student achievement.
Local accountability and decision making include:
- Student Achievement: As locally elected officials, school boards should have the ability to set priorities, customize programming, and maximize community strengths to improve outcomes for all students;
- Accountability & Reporting: Data collection for state accountability should enhance the ability of school boards to focus on student learning and school improvement. IASB supports streamlining state-level reporting on management operations and eliminating duplicative or inefficient reporting processes;
- Funding flexibility: School boards should have the ability to maximize existing resources to meet local needs;
- Transparency: School boards should have flexibility to provide public access to records in ways that promote transparency for citizens while balancing the cost to taxpayers; and
- Flexibility on Health and Safety Measures: School boards should have the ability to make decisions, in partnership with local officials, regarding the health and safety needs of students, staff, families and the community.
3. Teacher Professional Development and Retention
- Developing effective teachers and keeping them in every Iowa school district is crucial to student success and can be supported through state policies that:
- Provide teacher leadership and quality professional development programs.
- Provide beginning teacher mentoring programs.
- Maintain Iowa’s teacher leadership and compensation program
- Create a program to fund retention incentives to maintain a high-quality teacher workforce.
- Allow flexibility and resources to pay school staff market competitive wages.
4. Student Achievement
- Iowa students benefit from rigorous content standards and benchmarks that reflect the real- world knowledge and skills students need to graduate from high school prepared for college, trade school, military service, or to enter the workforce. We support state policies to:
- Provide technical assistance for school districts to fully implement the Iowa Content Standards which define what students should know and be able to do in math, science, literacy, social studies, and 21st century skills.
- Ensure research-based professional development that provides educators with training, support and time to work together.
- Support intensive, high-quality tutoring to improve student literacy and math proficiency.
- Continue evidenced-based literacy materials to help improve student achievement.
- Expand programming for career and technical education and apprenticeships.
- Ensure assessments are aligned to high expectations, improve and align instruction, and quality professional development.
- Support curriculum decisions that are made by locally elected school boards.
- Allow a consideration process that engages stakeholders, the Department of Education, and the state board of education in new graduation requirements.
- Provide full access to technology and online learning through Infrastructure investments, including:
- Provide incentives to expand service with a priority on those areas with access to the slowest speeds.
- Guarantee minimum download and upload speeds as a condition to receive grant funding or other financial incentives.
5. Mental Health
Mental health issues are increasing and impacting student achievement. To address these concerns, we support state policies that would establish comprehensive school and community mental health systems to offer preventative and treatment services to:
- Increase access to mental health professionals via in-school, in-person, or telehealth visits.
- Expand the capacity for therapeutic classrooms to provide short-term solutions to behavioral issues.
- Improve awareness and understanding of child emotional and mental health needs through ongoing teacher, administrator, and support staff training.
- Integrate suicide prevention and coping skills into existing curriculum.
- Support the mental health needs of educators and staff.
- Provide a comprehensive mental health resources clearinghouse for schools and community providers.
- Expand training that includes a referral plan for continuing action provided by mental health professionals outside of the school district.
- Designate a categorical funding stream for mental health professionals serving students and ongoing teacher, administrator, and support staff mental health training.
- Support development of a mental health workforce to provide services to children.
6. School Safety
Every student and staff member should have a safe and secure environment in which to learn and work. We support state policies to:
- Expand resources and evidence-based training for staff and adults working with students to address behavioral issues.
- Provide early identification, intervention, and school violence prevention programs.
- Enhance flexibility for schools to work with parents, the community, law enforcement and emergency personnel to institute safety measures in and around schools.
- Provide evidence-based school safety training for students and staff.
- Allow maximum flexibility and equitable distribution of resources to meet student, staff and building safety needs.
7. Private School Choice
Accredited private schools who accept education savings account funds should be required to accept all students regardless of race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and disability. Accredited private schools who accept education savings account funds should be held to the same standard as public schools with respect to accountability and transparency. This includes but is not limited to the following:
- Make public the annual audit of the accredited private school
- Adhere to the same reporting requirements on student achievement as is required of public schools
- Reimburse the pro-rated amount of educational savings account funds for a student who is expelled or voluntarily withdraws before the conclusion of the semester.
Find your legislator: www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators
