School district returns to lobby capitol for second year

Lobbying for education funding a priority in Charles City

By Amie Johansen

amie@charlescitypress.com

Securing funding is essential for any endeavor. Once again, Charles City School Board members, and supporters, traveled to Des Moines to lobby for increased funding for education.

According to School Board Member Robin Macomber, this year’s visit to Des Moines was a year and a day after their visit last year. Having lobbied once before, Macomber felt this year’s visit to the Capitol went more smoothly.

“We were better prepared with materials and exhibits,” Macomber said. She also found it helpful speaking with familiar faces.

There were four talking points to this year’s message, Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox said.

“The first one is to set supplemental state aid at four percent,” he said. “The message received back from legislatures was ‘no it won’t be four percent, but somewhere between two and 2.5 percent.’”

The second point was to encourage that supplemental state aid be set soon.

“The statutory deadline has already passed,” Cox said. It is difficult for schools to set their budgets by the April 15 deadline when they do not have confirmation of the level of state aid they will receive.

They spoke on behalf of extending the SAVE — Secure an Advanced Vision for Education — program. The sunset for SAVE is for 2029. The hope is to not only extend the sunset for another 20 years, but also to maintain it as it was intended. Voters approved SAVE with 100 percent of funds to applied to infrastructure, buses and technology, Cox said.

“The last one is the smarter balanced assessment and summer literacy,” Cox said. A push to increasing literacy has been placed on districts across the state. According to Cox, part of this talking point was to ask that these programs be postponed until proper funding can be secured.

Their agenda was well received.

“I thought the representatives and senators were much more responsive to our presence and communication than they were last year,” School Board President Scott Dight said.

School Board Vice President Jason Walker agreed with Dight’s perception.

“I think they appreciate that we come down there and paint the Charles City picture and they were receptive and respectful of that,” Walker said.

To help better illustrate the greater effect education funding has, Chamber of Commerce Director Mark Wicks joined the School Board members.

“The big thing was to paint the bigger picture to senators and representatives how closely tied the schools are to a community,” Wicks said. “Schools are our largest employers. What happens in our school directly impacts our community.”

Also attending the session was a retired Osage School Board member and an Osage parent. Lobbyists spoke with 16 senators and representatives, of which eight were Republicans.