North Tama Needs Your Help - Please Advocate for Our School!

This blog post was submitted for publication in the Friday, January 1 edition of the Traer Star Clipper.

The 2016 Iowa Legislature will convene on January 11, 2016. The last legislative session was not good for education in Iowa, so our advocacy is more important now than ever before. Legislators often hear from school superintendents, administrators, teachers, and school board members. After a while, it seems that they get tired of hearing from those of us in the educational community. The legislature needs to hear from parents, community members, and local business owners that our schools are valued and a vital part of our communities! I was recently told by one former legislator that an advocacy phone call or letter from a parent or community member is more highly regarded than 10 advocacy calls from school superintendents.  

Perhaps in the news last summer you heard the story about a Waterloo teacher who was told by a legislator to “stop whining” when he advocated for a special legislative session to overturn the Governor's veto of one-time funding for schools. While I don’t appreciate this legislator’s response, it does make sense that some legislators will perceive advocacy from educators as self-serving rather than an effort to help our students. Because of this, and the fact that our efforts were not very successful  last year, it is evident that we need your help. If we can get parents and community members involved in our advocacy efforts, I think you can help make a huge difference for North Tama Schools. Here is what I believe are the highest priorities for this legislative session.

ADEQUATE SUPPLEMENTAL STATE AID (SSA): This is absolutely the highest-priority item. Supplemental state aid is the primary driver of funding for school districts’ general budgets. Last year, school districts received a 1.25% increase in SSA. Since this increase is on a PER-STUDENT basis, districts with declining enrollment like North Tama actually LOST money. Meanwhile, our costs have increased more than 1.25% even despite the cuts that were made. A situation like this will not be sustainable in the long term. Adequate SSA will be a key factor in keeping schools like North Tama viable in the long term.  

TIMELY SUPPLEMENTAL STATE AID (SSA): According to Iowa law, within the first 30 days of the legislative session each January the legislature is supposed to set the rate of school funding for the next TWO fiscal years. The Iowa legislature broke this law last year, and has done the same numerous times over the last several years. North Tama’s board was required by law to adopt a budget last spring, even though they didn’t know what the funding levels would be at the time. Schools need to be able to plan ahead in order to be fiscally responsible. Let’s ask our legislature to comply with the law and set the rate of school funding for the next TWO fiscal years.  

PER-STUDENT FUNDING EQUITY: Iowa’s school funding formula has built-in inequities that impact school districts and the students they serve. Since, the 1970’s when the current school funding formula was established, North Tama has received the LOWEST amount of per-student funding possible from the state of Iowa. While we do receive the exact same funding per-student as many districts in the state, just look at what some area districts have received, year after year, since the 1970’s:

Hudson: $175 more per student than North Tama

Union: $82 more per student than North Tama

BCL-UW: $81 more per student than North Tama

Cedar Falls: $7 more per student than North Tama

South Tama: $20 more per student than North Tama

Across the state, there is a $175 range in basic per-student funding that exists just because “it has always been that way.” This means North Tama and many other districts have less to invest in each student from day one. Please ask the legislature to end this inequity immediately, as ALL of Iowa’s students are important assets for our future!

TRANSPORTATION EQUITY: Districts that must spend more on transportation have less to spend on classroom instruction. There are districts in Iowa such as West Burlington (Total Land Area: 2 Square Miles) and Marion (Total Land Area: 3.6 Square Miles) that have very few students that even qualify daily for bussing because they live so close to the school. These districts spend virtually nothing on transportation compared to larger rural districts like North Tama (Total Land Area: 155 Square Miles). North Tama’s students deserve equal educational opportunities, yet districts like ours are forced to spend a higher percentage of our available funds on transportation leaving less money to provide these opportunities. Our legislature should be asked to provide an additional funding stream for transportation or use a formula based on population density when determining Supplemental State Aid.

If you would like to learn more about these or any other advocacy issues that are important to North Tama Schools, please feel free to contact me! Your help and advocacy will be critical during the upcoming legislative session. On my blog, I have posted contact information for our legislators and the Governor’s office so you can easily make contacts on our behalf. You are welcome to visit my blog at http://redhawksupt.blogspot.com/ where this column and all of the columns I have written for the Star Clipper are posted. You are also welcome to follow me on Twitter (@DavidRobertHill) where I will occasionally post updates or other information not found on the blog. THANK YOU for your support of the North Tama County Community School District!

For information on how to contact Senator Steve Sodders, who represents the entire North Tama district in the Iowa Senate, click here. (Includes email, postal address, and telephone.)  

For information on how to contact Representative Dean Fisher, who represents the entire North Tama district in the Iowa House of Representatives, click here.  (Includes email, postal address, and telephone.)  

For information on how to contact the office of Governor Terry Branstad, click here. (Includes postal address, telephone, and a way to register your opinion online.)