Reorganization may impact empowerment programs

    The state Legislature is in the process of revamping a number of government programs, and one of the reorganization measures would affect community empowerment programs, including the Washington and Henry County empowerment programs.

    Tasha Beghtol, the program coordinator for the empowerment programs in Washington and Henry counties, said the Iowa Senate approved a bill Monday that would incorporate the empowerment program for early childhood education into the Department of Education. Beghtol said that one of the amendments of the bill, proposed by Senator Becky Schmitz, would affect the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program by limiting who could serve as a parent educator for the children 0-3 years of age. Under the proposed changes, only a person who has a teaching license could be a parent educator for PAT. There are currently six parent educators who work with the PAT program in Washington. 

    ?This amendment came as a complete shock to everyone in Empowerment,? said Beghtol.

    Beghtol said that even previous parent educators who have degrees in social work would be barred from being parent educators by the amendment. She said she fears the Department of Education would become empowerment?s ?boss? and that programs for young children would suffer under the reorganization.

    ?Parents as Teachers is dedicated to providing assistance to children before they enter school,? said Beghtol. ?Our fear is that if empowerment?s programs are moved to the Department of Education, the department will funnel more money from the 0- to 3-year-olds and to the preschoolers.?

    There are noticeable differences between infants and elementary kids, said Beghtol. She said that the Department of Education should do what it does best, which is K-12 education.

    ?We should let empowerment continue to do what it does best, which is focusing on infants,? said Beghtol. ?There are significant differences even between an infant and a 2 year old.?

    Beghtol spoke at a state Legislature committee meeting Tuesday. She told the committee what Washington and Henry counties are doing to improve efficiency. The state government made it known last year that it wanted more empowerment areas to consolidate as a way of increasing efficiency. Beghtol reported that the empowerment areas in Washington and Henry counties were the only two areas of the 58 in the state that voluntarily applied to merge. The application still has to be approved by the Iowa Community Empowerment Board, which Beghtol hopes will happen in May.

For the full article, see our Feb. 3 print edition.