Branstad holds Education Summit Town Hall meeting in Sigourney
Iowa Governor Branstad speaks with educators during a special town hall in Sigourney, Iowa on Wednesday afternoon.
Sigourney, Iowa – Governor Branstad and Lt. Goveror Reynolds held a town hall meeting as a part of the 2011 Iowa Education Summit on Tuesday. The town hall first opened with a video showing the history of Iowa Education in the past since 1992. In 1992, Iowa was viewed as one of the top schools in the nation, however over the past decade, Iowa has experienced very slow growth in NAEP Math and Reading tests causing our standing among national comparisons to drop.
According to information handed out at the town hall, Iowa’s results on the NAEP tests have stayed flat or declined. The information showed that from 2003 to 2009, improvement by Iowa on the NAEP Math tests has been very minimal. Only one state had improved slower than us, that state being West Virginia. In the reading tests, the information showed that from 2003-to 2009, improvement had declined in Iowa. Only two states are behind us in reading, those being North Carolina and West Virginia.
After the video and reviewing the information handed out, the floor was opened for questions. One of the first questions Branstad received was on his choice to invite Chris Christie to Iowa as a speaker at the Educational Summit. Branstad cited Christie’s policies in education while serving as Governor of New Jersey as reasons why he was invited to speak at the Summit.
After the Town Hall was finished, Osky News had a chance to catch up with the Governor and speak with him one-on-one about the future of Education in Iowa.
Iowa's Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds was on hand to help answer questions and provide comment on questions posed by educators
We wanted to know if Branstad wanted No Child Left Behind repealed or reauthorized, and if so, what changes he want to see. The Governor replied, “I think there’s got to be more flexibility. I think the idea of No Child Left Behind was good, but it lacked the flexibility and it’s too rigid, and we’re very hopeful we will see a re authorization but significant adjustments and changes to give more flexibility to states and school districts to improve student achievement.”
The classroom is changing very quickly, is your administration going to promote more technology in the classroom now? “Yes, One of the things we have talked about, one of the three themes is the use of technology and innovation. We also see collaboration and maybe less lecturing and more teamwork in the classroom, and also obviously the use of technology. Many school districts have gone to 1:1 computers. Certainly we had that experience in higher ed when I was at Des Moines University. I think that makes a lot of sense. Kids today, they use technology before they ever start Kindergarten. I have a 5 year old granddaughter with her own iPad and teaching her grandmother how to do it. It’s pretty amazing,” Branstad said of his thoughts of implementing technology in the classroom.
Is your administration now going to focus more attention to healthy lunches or putting in more fitness? “We’re actually looking at a public/private partnership and setting a goal of making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation, and we want to involve all levels in this. We definitely want to get the schools and young people involved. We also want to get adults involved in this as well and setting goals to increase nutrition and exercise. We want to encourage more exercise and physical activity in schools, and we have Iowa Games and some other programs like that and their doing some things with the schools as well. We see that as real important. Also, this idea of more fresh fruits and vegetables and letting school districts [buy more locally] instead of having to buy in large commodities of these surplus commodities, being able to buy locally fresh fruits and vegetables and other food supplies could be very helpful to having better nutrition and better food service in school.”
K.Allsup also contributed to this story.
