‘Listening before legislating’

Throughout November, members of the Iowa House Education Committee’s Democratic caucus traveled around the state for listening sessions to learn more about local education issues.

Saturday, Nov. 15 was Creston’s turn, with Iowa Representatives Heather Matson (District 42), Eric Gjerde (67), Tracy Ehlert (79) and Elinor Levin (89), joining a handful of Union County residents at the Gibson Memorial Library.

"I don’t think it’s legislators’ jobs to come up with the ideas out of thin air and decide what we think is right for everybody," Levin said. “I really have been thinking a lot about listening before legislating and I think a lot of that has come out of these listening posts, hearing what’s going great in communities, what’s a struggle and what are ways we can be helpful at the state level.”

While everyone said the overall education in Union County was continuing to improve, two areas that needed focus locally and around the state were special education and staffing shortages.

Matson said that, according to 2024 numbers, only 26 school districts in Iowa were not running a special ed deficit.

“A special ed deficit has been around in Creston as long as special ed has,” Union County resident OJ Fargo said. “It’s just kind of a fact of life; it just depends on what degree you’re at.”

Recently-elected Creston Community School District board member Kathy Thorne Ralston said she believed it was a general lack of understanding that continued the special education deficit.

“Usually superintendents have a general understanding of it, but I don’t know if that goes toward board members or administrators so they’re able to speak that language to parents who are asking those questions or teachers who are asking those questions,” Thorne Ralston said. “If they find something [deficient], then moving towards that. I will say, I think there is a substantial need in special education. Regardless of how we got here, we’re in a position where we need more funding to pull ourselves back up.”

Also impacting special education services is the lack of certified staff. School districts around the state have faced this issue both within the special education department and the district as a whole. Many districts have looked to community members who are professionals in separate fields to teach aspects of their craft to fill needed postions. However, the qualifications and certificates needed to teach in a public school make this difficult.

“I think that we have some stakeholders here who would very much benefit, even my husband, who would love to teach high school biology. He’d be an excellent, he’s a surgeon, but he’s seriously looking at this, like how could I make that happen as I’m phasing out of that work,” Thorne Ralston said. “I think there are other really wonderful professionals that really are looking and care deeply, especially in our small communities, that could make an enormous difference if we could simplify [the certification].”

Additionally, the lack of increases in state funding through the years was criticized.

“The biggest challenge I see is, we have overhead costs that are significantly increasing: commercial property insurance, utility rates that are going 10-15% year after year and when state general aid and other types of funding are 2-3%? You still have to operate the same amount of infrastructure that you have and be able to maintain the infrastructure,” Southwestern Community College Vice President of Economic Development Wayne Pantini said. “When those overhead costs are sky rocketing costs, we’re having to spend those dollars on something that is not directly related to serving the child and their needs. It’s indirect costs, and you can’t control that or cap those things, but you still have to pay for that.”

Gjerde said that the listening sessions have overall been going well, with valuable feedback coming from each town.

“I think one thing about education is that Iowan’s desire to have really strong education transcends political ideology,” Gjerde said. “Governor Branstad in 2010 did the education summit. He brought folks in from all over the country and all the stakeholders in from the state of Iowa and said, ‘how can we make education number one in the country?’ That’s something that we have attempted to replicate again, because I think we did get a lot of information from that.”

The legislators were impressed by the number of area students taking dual enrollment courses through SWCC, as well as the relationship the local schools had with area stakeholders like Greater Regional Health.

“Partnerships like that are exactly what I was talking about,” Gjerde said. “They recruit healthcare professionals, physicians, nurses and hopefully they come with a spouse or a partner, children. That’s exactly the type of stuff we need everybody working together.”

As the caucus continues to talk to Iowa communities, all Iowans are invited to take a survey to share their thoughts on the positives and negatives of the Iowa education system. While the survey will ask for contact information, the legislators said this is only for follow-up questions. No names will be publicly linked to answers.