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COMMUNIQUÉ A PUBLICATION OF THE IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION – APRIL/MAY 2016 – Vol. 53, No. 6 IN THIS ISSUE: OPINION A victory for Iowa's community colleges, but more work to do DA Report LEGAL Your Next Contract 3 6-7 12 Set it... Set it... and forget it! and forget it! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! E-DUES AVAILABLE NOW! FOLLOW US ON: Legislative Wrapup Excellence in Education: Nevada High School's Kevin Cooper See COOPER page 10 Kevin Cooper was a newly-minted agriculture education instructor when he walked out the doors of Iowa State University and smack dab into the farm crisis economy of 1983. Luckily, Cooper found a position as an agriculture teacher and FFA instructor in rural Northeast Community School District. But many of his students and their families were getting hammered by debt and cratering commodity prices. Cooper, who is the Iowa State Education Association's 2016 Excellence in Education winner, took to running along the country roads in Goose Lake to gain peace of mind and think. He wanted to help somehow. The Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) are the standardized test districts were supposed to start using in the 2017-18 school year. Lawmakers put a one-year delay on the requirement before adjourning this spring. That delay may or may not stick, and the ISEA is following this closely. As members of the committee that recommended Smarter Balanced we put together this Q & A about the recommendation. - Tammy Wawro, president, Iowa State Education Association & Melanie Wirtz, teacher, Peet Jr. High, Cedar Falls The Iowa Legislature adjourned Friday, April 29, after going into overtime for 10 days. The session was marked with a rejection of the governor's water quality plan, arguments over the amount of oversight as Medicaid goes private and the passage of tax breaks for businesses. On the education front, the anti-public education majority in the House chose to shortchange public schools in favor of corporate tax breaks. Gov. Terry Branstad's plan to scoop voter- approved school infrastructure funding to subsidize pollution fell flat and lawmakers worked with the ISEA to delay the third grade reading retention program which the governor never figured out how to pay for. "This legislative session reinforces the need for educators to support their students in the voting booth as well as the classroom," Iowa State Education Association President Tammy Wawro said. "Elections have classroom consequences. Our students, our schools and our state will benefit when we put more pro-public education candidates into office." ISEA Government Relations Specialist Melissa Peterson recaps the legislative session below: Supplemental State Aid SF 174 and SF 175 Attempts to set Supplemental State Aid for FY 2017-18 at a rate of 4 percent were unsuccessful, despite the best efforts of many pro-public education legislators in both the House and the Senate. Supplemental State Aid, or SSA, is the state's per pupil funding formula. When SSA falls behind the cost of educating students, school districts will try to make up the difference with local property tax increases and/or cuts to programs, staff and supplies. Instead, a compromise of 2.25 percent was reached and signed into law by Governor Branstad on April 6, 2016. Senate Democrats voted to set the SSA rate for FY 2018-2019 at 4 percent during the first 30 days of session, as required by law. But House Republicans refused to take action, broke the law once again, and left public schools districts, educators and students in a state of limbo. Between inadequate SSA for FY 17, coupled with the uncertainty of FY 18, public school funding continues to lag behind state net revenue growth, which has averaged approximately 4 percent for the last five years. We must persist in the fight for no less than 4 percent SSA, delivered in a timely fashion, if we hope to avoid further staff reductions and program cuts leading to fewer opportunities for our students. The Iowa Capitol as seen on April 29, 2016, the last day of the 86th General Assembly. Nevada High School Vocational Agriculture teacher Kevin Cooper discusses commodity prices with his students during a morning session class. Cooper, the 2016 Excellence in Education winner, began his teaching career in Goose Lake, Iowa, in 1983. See LEGISLATIVE page 10 Go to page 12 for the Q & A Smarter Balanced

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