What has happened to common sense?

Iowans from all walks of life make important personal and professional decisions. And most of us value common sense as a guiding light.

This column looks at the decision making process the 2024 legislative session used to dismantle Iowa’s area education agencies. Its lack of common sense is baffling.

1. Gov. Reynolds paid Guidehouse (a Virginia-based consulting firm with no apparent expertise in the field of education) to review Iowa’s Area Education Agencies. Why not ask Iowa stakeholders to conduct the review?

2. The Guidehouse report used faulty data. Reynolds used it to say that Iowa students with disabilities are performing below the national average.

Iowa has approximately 70, 000 special education students and the scores used by Guidehouse came from less than 1% of those students. Common sense dictates the bigger the decision, the better the data should be.

Why use a tiny sliver of students on one assessment to make a huge decision that has the potential to impact all of Iowa’s students? Why not look at progress on individual education plans?

Why not look at dismissal rates from special education? Why not look at special education graduation rates? Why not look at customer satisfaction?

3. On March 21, House Republicans released their 49-page version of the AEA legislation at 3:50 p.m. and mandated that it be voted on by 6:30 p.m. Common sense indicates 2 hours and 40 minutes is not enough time for careful consideration.

Why the rush? Why not allow adequate time to study the bill and gather input from constituents?

4. The AEA legislation creates a task force to study and make recommendations on the AEA system. Isn’t this backward? Why not form a task force, take its recommendations under wraps, and THEN make major changes?

5. Gov. Reynolds selected McKenzie Snow to be Director of Education. The Senate confirmed her nomination. Snow does not have an education degree nor does she have classroom experience in the United States. Why not hire someone who has experience related to the department she is directing?

Sen. Dawn Driscoll and Rep. Brad Sherman voted in favor of the final AEA legislation. What happened to their common sense?

Voters, let’s use OUR common sense and usher in a different slate of legislators this coming November.