Letter To The Editor: A Response To Plans

Editors Note: The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are not necessarily the views or opinions of Osky News.

A note that I also posted on the Waukee Patch.com in response to an update from the Republican representative for that district, Rob Taylor. Rob is a good, honorable man who offered details about pending education legislation that our own representative ignored in his summary.

The link to Representative Taylor’s original post is here:
http://westdesmoines.patch.com/blog_posts/taylors-news-from-the-hill-education-reform-is-on-the-move.

A response to the plans put forth in Mr. Taylor’s column:

Lowering base pay for teachers (from $35,000 to $32,000) is a good way to persuade potentially excellent teachers to find another profession. A terrible message to future Iowa teachers–“you’ve been devalued.”

Increasing “assessment”–another word for increased testing– will not help my daughter learn. Teachers now teach to testing which means teaching to memorize. Lower salaries and more testing will not lead to better educated Iowans.

Also, the voter ID bill that Republicans are pushing is a solution to a non-existent problem. Unless, of course, the problem of concern is that certain people are legally voting and one specific party believes it would be better off without certain people voting.

Rick Vogel