At a Forum in Mount Vernon, Iowa

by Paul Deaton

This Saturday, Iowa Legislators headed out to communicate with the public across the state. Armed with talking points and hope, to meet with constituents, hither and yon they came and a few brave souls ventured out on a thawing winter day to listen and ask questions.

Blog for Iowa attended the League of Women Voters' Legislative Coffee in Mount Vernon, Iowa where Representative Nate Willems (D-29), Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston and Mount Vernon School Board member Tom Wieseler gave brief comments and answered questions from the league and from about ten audience members. Someone was shooting video for distribution outside the room. This morning the talk was mostly about education. The benefit of low turnout was the author could ask more than one question.

With everything that is at stake in the 84th Iowa General Assembly, it is stunning that so few members of the public appeared at this forum. There were zero questions on the social issues of which so much was made in Des Moines during the first five weeks of the legislature. Supervisor Langston mentioned the county was seeking to ban guns from county buildings as the former County Attorney had previously been stabbed in one of them. No one in the audience objected on Second Amendment or any other grounds.

Since the legislature has to write a budget, no one complained, and everyone understood that the House and Senate will have to work to come up with a compromise. Until that happened, we would wait and see what needs to be done to live within the new budget. A much different picture than has been painted by conservatives who view Iowa's education system as bloated and lethargic.

Representative Willems is the ranking member of the House Education committee, and is in the middle of the firestorm over funding preschool, and determining the percent of allowable growth in the education budget. The Republicans propose zero percent allowable growth and the Senate Democrats propose two percent. One shouldn't assume that the parties will meet in the middle according to Willems. He expressed morale outrage that the Governor could propose $1 billion in tax cuts, yet purportedly could not properly fund education.

School Board member Tom Wieseler said one of the roles of the school board was to “not screw up the culture and reputation” the school district has established, saying that's why people come to live in Mount Vernon. He explained how the district dealt with Governor Culver's 10% cut last year, saying the board took $245,000 out of the operating budget, and that “all of the low hanging fruit” was picked. “Additional cuts will have to come out of programs,” Wieseler said.

Supervisor Langston contributed to the conversation saying, “the debate is less about the dollars for education and more about the limits and structures put upon teachers and how this restricts innovation.” She indicated that in order to recover from a 28th in the nation ranking, Iowa schools need to approach innovation and not just the funding. That is a side of the debate we don't always hear in Des Moines.

As the meeting broke up, we socialized a bit and headed home, hoping this calm, sane and reasonable conversation could continue in Des Moines. We are preparing for the worst from our politicians, but hoping for the best in a session of divided government.

~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton