Published: May 10, 2008 12:14 am            

Culver signs $1.3 billion school spending bill

BETTENDORF — Gov. Chet Culver on Friday signed into law a giant $1.3 billion spending package that finances the next step in raising teacher pay and expanding preschool programs.

Culver made both moves a priority of the 2006 legislation session, his first as governor.

“The bill is about one thing, giving every student in Iowa a quality education,” said Culver, a high school teacher before being elected secretary of state and then governor.

Culver last year pushed for a $150 million teacher pay increase over four years, and a $60 million preschool increase over the same stretch. He said his top priority this year was delivering the next step in those efforts.

The spending package Culver signed sets aside $75 million for the next step in a teacher pay plan designed to raise salaries in the state to 25th in the nation.

“When I took office our teachers were 42nd in the nation in teacher pay, that’s embarrassing,” Culver said.

It also sets aside $15 million as the next payment on a multi-year effort to expand preschool offerings, setting a goal of making preschool available to every child in the state on a voluntary basis.

“We’re going to offer universal preschool to every 4-year-old in this state by 2010,” Culver said. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is.”

In addition, the measure spends $183 million to finance the state’s community college system, a $10 million increase. The state’s Board of Regents gets $653.8 million for Iowa’s three public colleges and schools for deaf and blind people.

“This will allow us to keep tuition down,” said Pat Keir of Eastern Iowa Community College.

Culver said the community college funding was an important piece of the spending package. Culver noted that he keeps a photograph of former Gov. Harold Hughes, who launched the community college system.

“This is a historic day,” Culver said. “It’s never been done before, this level of financial commitment.”

The plan also includes $2.1 million to implement a core curriculum requirement that for the first time requires all public and accredited private schools to offer a basic set of courses. Such requirements previously were left to local school districts.

Another $1.9 million will go for a “senior year plus” program designed to expand college-prep offering to high school seniors.

Culver also pushed for and got a $4 million package for a math and science center at the University of Northern Iowa. The center will train more math and science teachers, responding to shortages in those subjects.

        

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