Iowa Board Strikes a Blow For Local Control

Good news came out today in an email from the Iowa Association for School Boards.  The Iowa Board of Education rejected Governor Branstad’s attempt to force schools to give up local control on setting the start date for the school year.  I have written about this before so I won’t present my argument again, but while I am an advocate of a later start to the school year, I salute the Board of Education’s decision to vote against the proposed rule changes.  Branstad was kowtowing to the demands of lobbyists for the tourism industry and state fair.  Fortunately, our leaders on the state board have not let demands from business and cronyism determine the schedule for education.  The state fair folks claim that they want increased attendance, which is a smokescreen for wanting more kids to serve as cheap, minimum wage labor in the concession trailers and doing grunt work for the fair.  Waterpark and theme park owners want to bleed a couple more weeks work out of kids rather than have them start their education.  It all reeks of greed and self-interest, and is a blatant case of hypocrisy on behalf of the governor who claims to be putting in place an educational program that will improve learning for Iowa school children.  How does starting school a couple of weeks later improve education?

For those of you that regularly read my blog, you know that I advocate a later start in the school year, and actually go further and advocate year-round school.  Until every school building in Iowa is air conditioned, it makes a lot more sense to have kids in these buildings in June than in the furnaces they become in August.  Plus, with school-sponsored sports in Iowa taking place in the summer, there is nothing wrong with giving families the month of August for family time.  I would love to see a rule that bans all school practices, camps and rehearsals in the month of August, but that is for another day!  I could go on and on with my argument.  However, I don’t want to lose my fundamental point: the Iowa Board of Education did not bow to political pressure and the influence of big business.  A couple of board members stated that they have never received as many emails and letters on an issue as they had on this school start matter.  It’s nice to know we have educational leaders that represent the people and did not take another chunk out of local control.