Iowa legislators wrong on education

Iowa legislators and our governor have been hard at work, but not necessarily in Iowa’s best interest. Iowans had little input on most of the new legislation on education and guns in the classroom.

As controversial as Betsy Devoss was as Education Secretary, now we have one of her underlings running our state education system. That group of people is not educated or qualified to manage something so important.

Now throw the AEA’s into their purview. What could go wrong? Obviously, the kids will suffer as we take local control away from communities and funding goes to private schools.

The $3 million grant to arm teachers is probably far short of what it will eventually cost, when you consider the cost of the guns, training and added liability insurance.

Putting the AEA’s control under the Department of Education is being done with little input from teachers, school administrators or the public.

As a former teacher I’ve seen some odd decisions but never a cluster that could have such bad outcomes.

There was very little input from the Democrats due to their minority stance in our state legislature. Some were sending out warnings and asking for the public to push Congress to open a discussion before the new laws were implemented. But there isn’t enough Democratic power to affect the outcome.

There is some good news in this legislative dilemma, teachers will get a well-deserved raise, with a starting salary of $47,500.

Public schools are underfunded partly because cost are rising faster than dollars being appropriated. We are forecast to have a surplus of $2.1 billion at the end of this year. Lowering income tax and giving more breaks to the rich make no sense when education is getting beat up.

Speaking of bad ideas, let’s put more guns into circulation. Even with training, teachers are not professional law enforcement or mentally suited to shoot another human.

Putting dogs into schools and posting their presence would be cheaper and more effective than providing guns and training to teachers, not to mention the lack of volunteers for this responsibility.

The argument against dogs is the liability if a dog bites a student. Think about the liability of a child being shot or killed by a shooter or, God forbid, a freaked-out teacher.

A trained dog can cost anywhere from $45,000 to $65,000. There are two nonprofit training schools in Texas where the cost is much lower at $10-15,000.

Expenses for the dog would range from $750 to $2,000 on the high end per year. That includes food and veterinary care.

Many of these shooters actually went to school in the buildings they have picked to attack. They may know there is protection for the kids there and choose to avoid confrontation with the dog.

Not to mention there is no hesitation. There won’t be any wasted time talking the situation to death while the crime is being committed. This animal is good with those he knows and is very loyal to their trainer. They may be a little more aloof with groups of kids but can be trained to be protective of them.

John Lehnst, Williamsburg