Members of the Greater Burlington Partnership gathered Saturday for the first Eggs and Issues Breakfast with area lawmakers of the new legislative session. The meeting included new faces for the first time in 14 years–incoming Republican Senator Tom Greene and David Kerr, incoming Republican Congressman from District 88. They joined incumbent Burlington Democrat State Representative Dennis Cohoon.
Panelists discussed tax reform, the state’s mental health and healthcare system and water quality. Education issues generated a lot of discussion.
Greene, a former President of the Burlington School Board, spoke on education issues, saying that the open enrollment system in the state is causing funding inequities and as he called it, “taxation without representation”.
“I understand the open enrollment issue. Kids are going into those districts, that’s fine and good,” said Greene. “But $3 million [in taxpayer money] is going out to those other districts. We need to have a voice on those boards.”
He made those comments in response to a question posed by Danville Superintendent Gary DeLacy on inequities in transportation funding between urban and rural schools. Greene added he would like to see open enrollment dollars split between the districts that lose their students and those that gain them.
Kerr says he plans to advocate for rural issues in the Iowa house, and disagreed with Greene on open enrollment.
“I think parents needs to have the option to educate their own children in the best way they see fit, wherever that is, and it’s going to take their dollars,” Kerr said.
Cohoon says that school districts in the state need more out of the state legislature, including actually following the often-broken deadline for setting allowable growth levels.
“We talked a little bit last year about–since we seem to break our own self-imposed deadline every year–one of the options would be just to get rid of the deadline,” Cohoon said to scattered laughter. “There is some discussion of doing FY18 in the first 30 days and then doing FY19 before the session ends.”
Cohoon says that one risk is that they wouldn’t get to setting allowable growth at all as a result.
The monthly breakfast is open to members of the Greater Burlington Partnership. The legislative session begins in January.
