Students lobby lawmakers

Font Size:

By Dan Gearino | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 12:21 AM CST | () comments

DES MOINES — Davenport students became lobbyists for a day Tuesday, traveling to the Statehouse to seek greater support for public schools.

More than 40 high-school students, teachers and administrators spent this day of their spring break meeting with the legislators. Statehouse education-policy lobbyists encouraged the visitors to speak from the heart, but also equipped them with a packet of talking points and bill numbers.

Jessica Swiers, 15, of Davenport West High School, said money is so tight in her school that some classrooms run out of paper for photocopies and other uses.

“We don’t even have paper to write on,” she said.

The legislative session is less than three weeks away from its scheduled conclusion and nearly all of the major education proposals are unresolved, including a bill setting the level of state aid for schools and proposals to boost teacher pay.

Sen. Maggie Tinsman, R-Bettendorf, told the students that problems in local schools are a shared responsibility of the state and local school boards.

Paul Baresel, 18, of Davenport Central High School, said the textbooks in a speech class haven’t been updated since the 1970s.

“It states that President Carter wouldn’t start a speech with a dirty joke. President Carter!” Baresel said.

The students gathered in a meeting room for lunch with Quad-City area legislators.

Sen. Joe Seng, D-Davenport, said he was glad to hear about school issues directly from students, because he believes their voices often get lost in political debates.

“They sometimes don’t get represented as well as they should,” he said.

Dan Gearino can be contacted at

(515) 243-0138 and dan.gearino@lee.net.