Annette Sweeney discusses Iowa Senate AEA bill
The Iowa Senate passed a bill this week to restructure the state’s area education agencies, approving a plan that differs from the House’s, which means Republicans in both chambers must search for a compromise.
State Republican Senator Annette Sweeney of Alden tells Radio on the Go News the senate bill focuses on accountability of taxpayer dollars.
"We're not slashing the media services or the educational services. What we are doing is making sure that our school boards have control of that money so they know how much money is being passed through and go to the AEA because right now we have no accountability. Our schools could ask at an AEA, hey, how much did we use XYZ or ABC or green sidewalks? They do not have accountability of how much they have gone to our schools and how much time is spent at our schools. That needs to happen. And I don't even care if it's, you know, me going out and feeding cows. I know how much grain goes into those buckets. We need to know how much of our taxpayer money is going into the bucket to support our AEAs."
There are those who are against the effort to restructure the education agencies.
"So what I've been hearing from individuals, they all say, let's push the brakes a little bit on this. So what we've done in the bill that we passed is that the special education piece, we're going to go ahead and give it a year to see exactly how much services that have been allocated, that have been used within our schools. So we have a good blueprint, what and how we need to do things because there hasn't been a blueprint. And I don't like to walk into an area that I, you know, are using, but if they can't tell me how they can provide and what kind of services that they provide for me, we need to have that happen and right now that's not there."
The issue of teacher pay is also being discussed in the Iowa Legislature.
