Local school districts will benefit from legislation

February 23, 2007 11:22 am

— A recent letter to the editor published in the Clinton Herald raised questions about my vote to increase spending by $108 million for basic state aid in education. I am disappointed that the author chose to play politics with our schoolchildren rather than focus on improving student achievement and teacher quality.
The writer of the letter, Republican Sen. Jeff Angelo, inaccurately stated that the Bellevue, Clinton, Delwood and East Central school districts would receive less funding than the current fiscal year under the proposal I supported. The truth is that all those districts will receive more funding next year because of my vote.
But Senator Angelo already knows this. After all, he joined me in voting for the very same legislation he later wrote to criticize me for supporting.
The Iowa Senate will soon approve approximately $75 million more for local schools as part of our teacher quality initiative and approximately $20 million more to help local schools expand early childhood choices for parents. This will be followed by a boost in class size reduction dollars and additional aid to local schools.
The bottom line is that Iowa schools will receive the biggest increase in state aid in a decade, we will expand accountability measures and we will continue our tradition of excellent local schools.

Sen. Roger Stewart,
Preston