Disconnection between lawmakers and school districts hurts both parties

There is a disconnect between lawmakers and public schools when it comes to solving problems, so much so that Newton Superintendent Tom Messinger said at last month’s school board meeting it feels “demoralizing” seeing the sheer number of education bills proposed every year at the Iowa Legislature.

During a legislative update with Rep. Jon Dunwell and Sen. Ken Rozenboom on March 24, Messinger pointed to the legislation addressing cell phone usage in schools and the fallout from the chronic absenteeism law passed last year as issues that could have been better addressed with clear one-on-one dialogue.

When it comes to cell phone and technology usage in classrooms, Messinger agreed something should be done. But he argued legislators failed to recognize that most schools already have different policies in place. He questioned if there is an understanding of what is in place in school districts regarding these issues.

“If there are inefficiencies within schools, then by all means maybe something needs to be done from a legislative standpoint,” Messinger said. “But in some situations what it does is without that dialogue going forward it can create a scenario that hurts you all as well as schools.”

Lawmakers attempted to address chronic absenteeism in the 2024 legislative session and ended up passing a law that proved to frustrate families and schools. The one-size-fits-all approach for school districts proved challenging, and this session lawmakers have worked to amend that law.

Messinger suggested better communication may help.

“Maybe working closer along the way and more regular dialogue on things would help decrease some of the workload for you guys as well,” he said.

Rozenboom agreed there are too many bills filed this session, a point he had made previously at legislative gatherings hosted by the League of Women Voters of Jasper County. As for the cellphone legislation, Rozenboom actually disagreed with the governor; he felt it should be a decision handled by individual districts.

“She wanted to do something to provide a baseline or basic requirements for the schools, and I guess I’m OK with that,” Rozenboom said. “…A lot of schools are doing good work and I have no question or doubts about that. But in a way we’re kind of a lowest common denominator body.”

What he means by that is the Iowa Legislature “responds where there are problems more than we respond to where there are good situations.” Plenty of schools, Rozenboom said, didn’t have a cellphone policy or a strong policy for truancy. To him and many others, it was obvious something had to be done.

There were problems around the state, and the lawmakers did something about it and they are now seeing results from the chronic absenteeism law.

Rozenboom relented that lawmakers did have to “go back and fix a few things.” Dunwell also addressed Messinger’s comments about chronic absenteeism. The representative said he spoke with leaders and was assured there had been lots of communication with superintendents. Either way, communication is important.

“You’re right I think we always need to have input and trying to make sure we’re not trying to create extra problems,” Dunwell said. “…There’s this whole thing from the federal government, from the state government, even from districts on down this whole word called ‘accountability,’ which is a hard word.”

While some lawmakers may look back at last session and are satisfied with the work they had done, Dunwell said there is a question of the timing to implement these changes. It takes time and energy, and there are only so many hours in the day for teachers to do all that they do.

Dunwell encouraged Messinger to continue pushing back on that issue.

School board member Cody Muhs asked if there was a way lawmakers could make laws contingent on the Iowa Department of Education making the rules or providing guidance to district. In many cases the school is asked to start doing something before the rule making is in place.

“It puts us in a very awkward position,” Muhs said. “And in many cases it has us using resources to try and balance potentially how different rule making may look.”

Dunwell said it is important to distinguish between administrative rules and guidance. Administrative rules are required, but there is sometimes a 108-day lag. Guidance comes from the Department of Education. Again, Dunwell said it is good for school board members and district administrators to push back.

He also said lawmakers need to remember it takes time for the Department of Education to come out with guidance. In some areas, guidance is guidance.

“It’s not the law. So there actually is a little bit of fear sometimes that we pass a law and all of a sudden we got this thing called a Department of Education and a director and their team and what they say almost has more power than the actual law legally,” he said. “But it doesn’t. The legislation is what has power.””