Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Universal preschool may remain in place for the next school year, but Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday the fight to reform early education isn’t over.
Branstad this session proposed an income-based voucher program for at-need four-year-olds attending preschool to replace the universal program in place now. Though the proposal flopped this session, Branstad said legislators can expect to see the idea proposed again in subsequent sessions.
“Last week, I acknowledged our proposal to reform the preschool process is not going to be approved this year because it’s so late,” Branstad said Tuesday, adding that districts have set their budgets for the coming academic year.
However, Branstad added he has no intention of backing down from reforming the program in the next and subsequent legislative sessions, and his administration continues “to believe this the direction we need to go in the future.”
Branstad’s intentions to bring back the voucher proposal in subsequent sessions was again confirmed by his spokesman, Tim Albrecht, Wednesday morning, and that the Governor “hopes legislators will take action on this plan in the future.”
Universal preschool was one of the many contentions between Branstad and Democrats, mostly due to funding. Republican leaders, including the Governor, have maintained the program contributes to a problem of the state spending more than its revenue.
Nonsense, Democrat leaders have fired back, contending that $65 million could allow districts to up to two percent increase of allowable growth for their budgets, while also fully funding universal preschool.
Republican leaders still plan on negotiating with Democrats on how universal preschool will be funded, however. Last week, Speaker of the Iowa House Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) would not characterize the continuance of universal preschool as a loss for his party, instead calling the opportunity to negoitate on reducing the funding for the program “a gain for Iowans.”
Paulsen said Republicans will aim for a figure 60 percent or less of what it costs per-pupil in elementary or secondary schools in a public school district. District superintendents told Paulsen they can adequately operate their preschool programs on less funding, according to Paulsen.
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