The Urban Education Network sent out a “call to action” on Wednesday, encouraging its members to oppose school choice for Iowa parents. The call to action is called “Education Savings Accounts (Vouchers) Are Not for Iowa.”
“UEN is encouraging the legislature to take a balanced approach, position public schools for success and consider measured tax relief that does not dampen the State’s future ability to adequately fund schools,” the document states. “We encourage our members to engage in thoughtful discussion and advocacy, respecting our state leaders who are wrestling with these big issues and encouraging advocates to build positive relationships going forward. This call to action concerns the Governor’s Omnibus School Choice and Parents’ Rights bill.”
The bill is on the Senate Education Committee’s agenda for Thursday, Feb. 17. The Urban Education Network is telling its members that if the bill passes, they should contact all senators through the weekend and into next week.
The Urban Education Network said that the bill has many provisions that it opposes because they are “overbearing and difficult to administer at the school level.” Other provisions are “not for Iowa” and some they would like to improve if introduced in separate bills.
It opposes the division of the bill calling for transparency and state standards as well as removing library books.
“School boards already have policies regarding parent requests to remove books or review curriculum materials,” the call to action stated.
The group also said it doesn’t have the technology resources to create searchable software necessary to comply with the transparency portion of the bill.
We are going to have another article about Urban Education Network’s opposition to the school choice bill shortly. Stay tuned.
Iowa parents have spent months at the local level to have sexually explicit, inappropriate, vulgar books removed from libraries. Unfortunately, in many cases, those concerns are not yielding action.
