Preschool called priority for Iowa

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Iowa Lt. Governor Patty Judge visited Longfellow Elementary School Tuesday morning, touring classrooms and reading to a group of preschoolers to draw attention to her message: Iowa needs to spend more on early childhood education.

“Research shows tremendous learning takes place between ages zero and 5, and we need to capitalize on that,” she said.

Judge visited Merrill, Sioux City, Onawa, Council Bluffs and Harlan on her two-day swing through western Iowa. At the stops, she promoted the “Moving Iowa Forward” package of budget and legislative priorities for the year.

The initiatives set by Gov. Chet Culver include job creation and retention, state government reorganization and a number of education priorities. Judge’s visit to Council Bluffs was meant to emphasize the preschool programs, she said.

“We have a recession, but in times of recession you can moan and sit on your hands or you can make something happen,” she said. “This is not a time to ignore our children. There are places to cut corners. This is not one of them.”

Fiscal hard times led Culver to implement 10 percent across-the-board state budget cuts last November and call for school districts to spend down cash reserves instead of raising property taxes.

The impact on Council Bluffs district schools was an immediate $4.5 million drop in funding. Ann Mausbach, executive director of curriculum and instruction, said the result could mean “we may have to close preschool programs.”

The district’s preschool programs serve about 700 children, and many have been turned away.

Judge offered a ray of hope in the quest for preschool for every child.

“We’re asking for an additional $15 million for universal preschool,” Judge said. “We want our children to be happy, healthy and well-educated.”

She said the governor’s legislative proposals include fully funding the 2 percent allowable growth in school spending for about $230 million statewide, “plus $100 million out of the state reserve account to go into the K-12 system. It won’t get you where you want to be, but we’re going to the wall for that $330 million.”

Jerry Mathiasen of the Iowa West Foundation said he was pleased with what he heard.

“The state funding is very important to the Pottawattamie County preschool program because it helps leverage the Iowa West Foundation’s investment of $8.3 million into the program over the past several years, as well as keep the local program at a high level of quality,” he said.

Patricia Russmann, director of Promise Partners, Pottawattamie County Alliance for Youth, said she hoped “both the community and the Legislature will understand that universal preschool is important.”

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