Education
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78,000 public service workers get student loans canceled by Biden administration
Through improvements to the public service Loan Forgiveness Program, the Biden administration has canceled loans for more than 871,000 public service workers.
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Opinion: Rethinking public high schools would help us fill important STEM jobs locally
We need a robust, highly skilled workforce in STEM to support the influx of major infrastructure projects cropping up across the country. The way to fix this is by starting at the high school level.
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House GOP pushes through bill aimed at undermining AEA services
Rep. Chuck Isenhart (D-Dubuque) can already see the writing on the wall for Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs), after Thursday’s Iowa House vote to move forward in implementing large-scale changes to the agencies. During the House debate on its amended AEA bill, Isenhart laid out exactly how he thinks Republicans will use this bill to…
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Iowa House passes bill to arm teachers, staff in school
Rep. Molly Buck (D-Ankeny), who is also a teacher, summed up her thoughts on Iowa House Republicans’ bill to arm school staff as a way to deter school shootings. “When I think about how my classroom is arranged, if I am carrying a gun and there’s a threat at the door, the thing that stands…
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‘I’m not going to teach in Iowa’: UNI students explain why they’re not sticking around
She grew up in Ames and went to the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls to become a teacher. But Lydia plans to leave Iowa as soon as she graduates. “Here at UNI, there’s so much emphasis in our classes on social-emotional learning and inclusion and talking about issues of diversity,” she said.…
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‘Doomed to failure:’ Iowans speak out on proposed AEA changes
Stacey Warren was one of the first people on the scene of the Perry High School shooting on Jan. 4, but she’s not a first responder: She’s a social worker for the Heartland Iowa Area Education Association (AEA). “I went to Perry and we were there before 10 a.m. and we have continued to serve…
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Kalbach: Our libraries are under attack at the Iowa Statehouse
I love my local public library. Lots of people use our libraries regularly, whether to check out books and movies, use the internet, or make copies of important documents. Iowa’s small-town public libraries are anchor institutions. They make our lives so much richer. And in addition to books, libraries provide many other services and programs.…
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Biden proposes new student debt relief plan for Iowa borrowers facing ‘hardship’
The new proposal will focus on providing debt relief to those with older loans or loans with large sums of interest; those with high-cost, unavoidable child care or health care expenses; borrowers who are highly likely to default; and others who face “financial hardship.”
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Iowa teachers could bring their own guns to work under GOP bill
Teachers or school staff members would be allowed to use a personal firearm and the identities of armed staffers would be concealed—per a suggestion from the NRA—under a new bill being considered in the Iowa House. These and other changes were clarified during a Wednesday morning Iowa Hosuse Public Safety Committee meeting over HSB 675,…
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Iowa Republicans’ answer to school shootings is more guns
Iowa House Republicans’ solution to prevent more students from being shot in Iowa schools in the wake of Perry is to bring more guns into the schools, which includes arming teachers and other staff members. “The scariest place to be in America, I believe, is in a place with ‘gun-free zone’ posted all over the…
