Legislator forum dwells on publication, education and schedules

WASHINGTON — A Washington Chamber of Commerce Legislative Forum at Halcyon House on Friday brought a smaller crowd and different issues from one in Kalona last month.

Coming out of the funnel week — in which proposed legislation must be passed out of committees or left for next year’s session — lawmakers said it was a busy time of year in Des Moines.

Public notice law draws attention

During the hourlong question and answer period, the plurality of public comments focused on Senate File 546, a bill that would remove the requirement for public notices to be published in newspapers, and instead place them on a state-owned website.

Critics said a free website already existed for that purpose, and that changing the policy would only limit the public’s access and risk transparency.

”Most people are online, but not everybody is online, and even if they are online, the Iowa Newspaper Association already puts all the notices online, so they are available online already,“ Southeast Iowa Union Publisher Matt Bryant said. ”Newspapers also provide a neutral third party, instead of the government monitoring the government … you can’t alter a public notice once it’s printed in a newspaper.“

Cheryl Allen, editor of The News — a paper based in Kalona — said online-only public notices meant no access for constituents without internet, an argument especially pertinent to some of the area’s population.

"We have that large Amish community that isn’t able to get online,“ she said. ”If we took them out I think we’d have even less public engagement.“

Public officials opinions were mixed. Washington Superintendent Willie Stone said the new policy would, “bring us up to our current reality,” while Washington Mayor Pro Tem Millie Youngquist said she was skeptical of the bill.

“It would save the city money, but I question whether the public accessibility and transparency would be there,” she said.

Legislators said they opposed the legislation as well, but to different degrees.

Hora was especially unenthusiastic about the proposed shift away from newspaper notices.

“I will always advocate on the side of newspapers,” she said. “Growing up, with my grandma and grandpa, they would sit at the kitchen table and literally read from front to back, and I believe that those people are still out there, and they should be getting the news.”

Driscoll said she was also an advocate for print publications, but did not explicitly state her thoughts on the bill itself.

“I think that it’s still relevant, and it’s so important,” she said.

Some call for return to Saturday forums

Another frequently mentioned topic at Friday’s forum was the event’s schedule. Some members of the audience said this year’s switch from Saturday briefings to Friday ones left working-class constituents — especially teachers — out of the loop.

One audience member asked legislators to consider a single Saturday meeting date during the legislative session, rather than making it the norm.

“For folks that have to work an hourly job, I just want to say that I think you should have a Saturday meeting, at least one or two,” said one audience member, who did not identify himself. “And I’d like to see the briefings happen a little bit sooner so we can address some of the stuff before you vote on it.”

Lawmakers said they were hesitant to make any major scheduling changes, citing a potential trade off with their family lives.

“I’m a mom, I have three high schoolers right now,” she said. “We understand that it would be easier for people to come to us on Saturdays, but I have to be a mom a little bit … they give up a lot for me to do this job.”

Smattering of education issues highlighted

A smorgasbord of education topics came up throughout the meeting, most of them fielded by Hora, who is on the house education committee.

In her opening remarks, the representative flaunted legislation from the week that restricted schools’ handling of gender and sexuality.

“Only age-appropriate materials will be taught and offered to children in schools,” she said. “There will be no gender identity or sexual orientation taught to kindergarten through sixth grade … and we passed parental guardian consent for gender identity at school.”

That subject drew some pushback during the forum.

“There’s a lot of energy behind the bills you’ve named about age-appropriateness, gender identity stuff,” said Nick Detweiler-Stoddard, a pastor in the area. “I’m not certain, theologically or in terms of our kids, that those are the most important issues to help them. The focus and attention you’ve given to that is maybe inordinate, and only targets children.”

Another speaker at the meeting said he was not in favor of GOP-led plans to restrict content and ban certain books from public school libraries.

“I think parents have to step up and see what their children are reading,” he said. “The whole idea of a book ban to me has a real stench to it, from the 1930s and Nazi Germany.”

Hora said the books should be removed from school shelves, but not censored entirely, remaining available to institutions like public libraries. She cited printed-off selections from “Push,” by Sapphire, “All Boys aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, and “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe.

Each of the books tell stories of identity-shaping and often traumatic experiences, but do illustrate or vividly describe sex acts at several points. Hora called the scenes “pornographic.”

“They can’t be shown on TV, they can’t be read on the radio, but they are in our schools,” she said.

Some education matters were less heated. KCII reporter Nick Pettit asked legislators about the qualifications of Chad Aldis, who was recently appointed to lead the Iowa Department of Education by Gov. Kim Reynolds, but whose experience in education is limited.

Hora said she was confident in the governor’s appointee nonetheless.

“ (Reynolds) does not take that choice lightly,” Hora said. “I don’t know a lot about him, but he is the person she believes will take the Department of Education in a direction that is the best for Iowa … we needed to change the direction for the Department of Education. They were kind of overstepping.”

On another matter, Washington Superintendent Willie Stone encouraged legislators to support a bill that would let districts weigh preschool students for attendance numbers, which influence annual funding from the state.

He said the change would be a boost for Washington’s schools.

“What that’ll mean for us is it will add 5-10 more students, and it will fully fund students, instead of partially funding preschool students,” Stone said. “As a district, we decided to do full-day preschool, we’re only paid to do half-day preschool. The reason we decided to do that is because we wanted people to be able to work in the community.”

Lawmakers said that bill was on their radar, but unlikely to pass in the near future.

“There’s a lot of people on the committee that believe that preschool doesn’t have to be a full day,” Hora said. “It is not dead, by any stretch. I don’t know that we will do anything this year, but it is something that we’re looking at, and there are people who want it, we’ve just got to figure out how to get it done … I understand making it easier on families, 100%, but is that the state’s job to make it easier on families? I’m not sure.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com