This is a column that ran is some of the small town newspapers  near Iowa City. Rep. Kaufmann is given aspace for a column every week. Some enterprising Democrats have worked to be allowed to respond to his column. The response column is called Cedar Valley Voices.

This week’s response comes from David Hunt of Tipton. Mr. Hunt is a retired teacher at North Cedar HS and a former Iowa Teacher of the Year.

The column to which he is responding can be found here.

I would like to respond to Representative Kaufmann’s comments on education in his column in last week’s paper. Several statements were incorrect in fact and questionable at their best.

Regarding alternate licensure which relates to teaching outside of a field of training and expertise, the most important question, and the one most often ignored by politicians, is why the shortage exists in the first place. Could it be low salaries and difficult working conditions or being the targets of ambitious governors and legislators who really don’t like public education in the first place. There already is a process for alternate licensure requiring related coursework and student teaching which takes about one year, not the four years Kaufmann suggests. This is important because teaching candidates need to have time to hone the requisite skills necessary to succeed in the classroom. After a 31 year teaching career and serving as a mentor for new teachers, it is clear to me that teaching is and should remain a profession.

Teacher evaluation and dismissal is a complicated issue and it’s important that Representative Kaufmann understand how the process works. Teachers want their colleagues to be successful and do not want administrators to act in an arbitrary and capricious manner. The purpose of the teacher’s union is to make sure proper procedures are followed, no more or no less. When a problem is identified through multiple evaluations, the union is informed. A remediation plan is developed and a committee works with the teacher to solve the problem ( I have served on these committees). If the teacher is unable or unwilling to make the appropriate changes, the process results in termination. Cases where thousands of dollars are expended are extremely rare and the vast majority of these involve districts having to provide back pay due to improper termination.

As this legislative session unfolds, it remains vital to the future strength of public education in Iowa that we watch closely as to how the Governor intends to fund education, especially as it relates to his intention to dramatically reduce commercial property taxes. Without long term replacement of these revenues, school districts and their boards will face a difficult future.