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Results mixed on Culver’s education reform

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By Charlotte Eby | Friday, May 9, 2008 12:33 PM CDT | () comments

When Gov. Chet Culver stepped out of the classroom and into the State Capitol, he brought an experience few governors can match.

Culver, a former high school history and government teacher, is using his time at the front of the class to shape the state’s education policy as Iowa struggles to stay near the top on educational measures.

In his first year as governor, Culver funneled money into public teacher salaries, hoping it could help encourage the best educators to stay in the state rather than heading somewhere they could earn more.

Top Iowa college graduates earning education degrees were being picked off by other states. The infusion of dollars has lifted Iowa’s average teacher salary to the middle of the pack.

Culver has kick-started other measures including “senior year plus” that would allow high school seniors to earn up to one year of college credit.

The governor also signed a statewide sales tax for schools that will help equalize funding for rural and urban schools. Dollars from the tax are earmarked for school construction and improvement projects.

Lawmakers also approved $4 million for a new teacher training center at the University of Northern Iowa that will help ready science and math teachers. Culver hopes the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Center will encourage education students to specialize in those areas.

Culver hasn’t gotten every education proposal he’s backed. A compulsory education law that would have required students to stay in school until they graduate or turn 18 was unable to clear the Legislature this year.

And despite his accomplishments on education, Culver is named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that Iowa’s education system has slipped and doesn’t adequately prepare its students for the future. Two prominent Republicans, 2002 gubernatorial candidate Doug Gross and Marvin Pomerantz, are behind the lawsuit, filed on behalf of families whose children are students in Iowa public schools.

The lawsuit points out disparities between smaller and larger schools and some under-performing schools. The lawsuit seeks to close the achievement gap and the development of content and performance standards for all Iowa school districts.

Culver spokesman Brad Anderson said Culver and lawmakers moved this year to address many of the concerns raised in the lawsuit even before it was filed.

Gross believes it isn’t enough.

No matter the outcome of the lawsuit, the stakes keep getting higher to improve Iowa’s education system and restore its prominence once again.

It’s more than a matter of pride or bragging rights; it’s a simple matter of economics. The state is facing a looming shortage of skilled workers and won’t continue to see its economy grow unless it can produce and retain educated workers.

After the state has spent years focused on luring companies and jobs, there’s a growing sense that reforming the state’s public school system to meet the needs of today’s students should be the next area of importance.

Charlotte Eby is Statehouse bureau chief for Lee Enterprises. Contact her at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.