The Best For Children And Education

The governor of this state must perform a teaching responsibility it is up to the governor of this state to begin the process of teaching the people of Iowa about the education system about the issues that affect their day to day lives so I'm going to need the information from the experts as to how best to communicate that to the rest of the state our kids are our most important resource and I think that we as a state have always been seen as the leader and will continue to be seen as a leader unfortunately what you end up reading about in the press is all the negatives and with it's important I think to realize that that we do have one of the best education systems in the country and that the majority of our schools are excellent schools and the majority of schools are doing a fantastic job hello my name is Jolene frankenz I'm a career Iowa teacher from Denison now serving as president of the ISEA during the next few weeks you will be hearing political candidates talk about the importance of Education polling done by Democrats and Republicans as well as the ISEA reveals education is the issue that Iowa voters are most concerned about that concern will be reflected in the political rhetoric you will be hearing between now and the November election is ca has worked hard to help you better understand views on education and other issues expressed by candidates for governor and for many legislative races this video further defines positions advanced by Democratic candidate Tom Vilsack and Republican Jim Ross Lightfoot we hope you and your colleagues will view this program and consider this information as you determine how you will have your vote seriously it seems to me that there really only two legitimate answers to this question and maybe they're more but I can only think of two one has to do with class size class size needs to be reduced in this state it's been an issue that I've talked about since the very first day that I announced for governor class size class size class size every longitudinal study that I've reviewed from every other state that looked at education reform has focused on class size and the importance and relevance and success of class size reduction surely you would have more time to deal with some of these issues that are outlined in the question if your class sizes were one in fifteen or one in seventeen then you do if your class sizes are one in twenty eight the additional students basically mean less time to do these things so class size would be an answer and it's something that I am committed to and I'm committed to committing the state's resources to beginning a real meaningful program to reduce class size of the time issues one that I guess we all fight that to a great extent on having time to do the things that we need one of the things that I would would promote wouldn't mandate it but on a voluntary basis a lot of the routine things that you have to deal with in the classroom I think we need some people who teacher assistance for lack of a better word who are in the classrooms to do some of those kinds of chores there are a couple schools that are doing some voluntary programs now and I think it's pretty exciting because they put two great resources our state has together they've reached out into the senior citizen community and they have seniors that come in and volunteer to be teacher assistants some of them have as many as two in a classroom and the neat thing that's happening there is that the teachers are finding they have time to teach and they also have somebody there who doesn't mind handling the discipline problem and is not afraid of getting sued well I've said before that I've embraced the the concept that's behind it that there be some restraints on on how we spend not that it says we can't spend but we have to be very judicial in in how we do the spending and unfortunately that gets translated into sometimes of people's thinking well you just want to shut the spending off and that that is not true in fact there are three areas that as far as I'm concerned on spending issue that I would put no limitations on or no caps on that we need to spend as we need it education is one transportation is two and crime is three those are three areas in our state that I think we probably don't spend enough money although spending money isn't necessarily how you solve a lot of the problems but it has to be part of the equation but I'm very leery about tampering with the Constitution that's pretty serious business and the concept of of making sure that there are some controls you just can't free wael spend because it's always easy to spend somebody else's money I have no problem with that but would approach that one with question I guess would be the best way to put it David Stanley has not gotten it right and David Stanley will never get it right but I've been there for the last six years saying to people in the state Senate and voting consistently for more resources for education because I believe in the public education system and I'll tell you that because I never attended one day in public school I didn't go to a public school but my kids did it is the great equalizer and if we undermine the confidence of that system which is what people are trying to do now we're going to take a component of a very important component of our democracy and it's going to be jeopardized and I'm telling you that's what this election is all about we've gone about as far as we need to go and until such time as we in this state believe that we are adequately and fully funding public education let's not continue to help finance that alternative system we're already providing support and help and as far as vouchers are concerned I'm not interested in a voucher system because I think that will be the demise of the public education system I have supported doing some support to the private schools because I think when we look at education I look at all of it public and private together and but the way I think that we eliminate the arguments and and so on about whether we even have to give the credits if we do the right things to make the public school system the best one on the face of the planet that other problem kind of goes away because that's where the kids are going to stay and they're gonna stay in the public schools and that would be my goal is to see that we've got the best public school system anywhere in the country I think the two reasons that I hear from people why they start homeschooling or go to a private school it's discipline and they don't think their kids are getting getting the basics that they just aren't back to your question on time there's too much time is spent on driver's ed and all the rest of the stuff and not on all the things they make a living with a voucher system you know bachelors kind of a buzzword that I could make this room pretty angry with it I suspect the most honest answer I can give you at this point in time this is one that I'm still wrestling with to some degree I have a confusion in my mind of what is the best way to deal with the so-called voucher I feel uncomfortable answering this question because I've not had an opportunity to talk to those in public education to find out what their priorities are and it seems to me that a governor who is crafting his or her legislative agenda needs to talk to people and we'll get into that in your last question about why the education reform thing is gone derailed I would have to know what the education community was interested in having but let's assume for the sake of discussion that you won't hold it against me for answering this question today I have always been concerned in an advocate for parental education and at risk of parent funding it seems to me that parents need to be their child's first and best teacher it seems to me that every state that surrounds Iowa has a program available and has had one available to all parents of newborns on a volunteer basis that will equip them with the tools and the techniques to be better teachers for their children I have never understood why we as a state are unwilling to adequately fund such a program and make it available to parents of newborns that that would be a priority at the same time I think it's an absolute outrage that in a state that has an eight hundred and fifty million dollar surplus that we would sent we would send a message to literally hundreds of children who are currently living in at-risk homes we know where these children are we know where they live we have programs to help them we have eight hundred and fifty million dollars in the bank and we still today put kids on waiting lists who need help and you in the classroom ultimately have to deal with the consequence of that poor legislative decision those programs should be fully funded those kids should get help that's number one number two we've already talked about class size that would be something that I would be very interested in in starting and number three I think I think we need to take a look at some mechanism for accountability we had a proposal this year in the legislature the Democrats proposal which I thought was a common-sense idea it basically said this that every child who was capable of reading by the fourth grade would in fact read at grade level and if the child was not in the school district working with the parents with resources provided by the state would find a way to help that child get to grade level but I think you've got to put the discipline back in a classroom and I think there's a lot of that we can do quite frankly but getting rid of some rules rather than writing new ones and may take a new one to get rid of the old ones but whatever it takes to get there the second issue would be a goal-setting process wherein we're working for specific goals we're a local control state I know it's got to be done at each local school board but the first school that does it excellence always imitates more excellence and other people want to do it the third piece would be quite frankly I think to make sure that I don't the tax thing to me is the key to all this we have to take this whole tax system of ours work the thing over so it's fair and equitable to everyone and would like to make sure that the public education is paid for by all of us after listening to both candidates discuss questions developed by a 13 member interview committee members of the ISE APAC Central Committee voted 55 to 1 to recommend support be given to the Democratic candidate for governor Tom Vilsack I've been using an agricultural metaphor along the campaign trail to explain the importance of this if you plant the same seed on the same ground year after year your yields go down and that's also true in politics just consider where you are today consider where education is today consider the promises that have been made those that have been kept in the many more that have been broken I'm here to ask for your help and your assistance I'm here to make sure you understand that should you decide to get involved in this campaign you will be an integral part of that process because I need your input I need your collective wisdom I need your collective energy we need to begin the process of reinvesting back in our education system instilling in people the confidence that the system is indeed as good as it is and we're giving you the resources to make it the best it can be so it sets up an opportunity that you folks have this year that you haven't had for a long time to have a gubernatorial race and legislative races center around and be decided on your issues what a tremendous opportunity for a debate and conversation in this state about the issues that you care about now it is your turn you must decide which candidate you will support which candidate will be the best for children and education I hope this year will be a rewarding one for you the people you work with and our students