Education Director Glass remains optimistic on education reform legislation

Comments made while at Leadership Iowa Convention in Decorah

Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass says he's "still optimistic" that the Iowa House and Senate leaderships will reach a compromise and will pass education reform legislation this session.
 
But Glass tells decorahnews.com that he predicts the legislation won't create a faste enough or big enough reform movement, so that the issue will have to come back to the legislature again next year.
 
Glass spoke Thursday at the Leadership Iowa convention in Decorah.  He told the group, "We have problems on each side of the political spectrum.  He then outlined what he saw as those problems.
 
Liberals, said Glass, for the most part believe no changes are needed in education; they concentrate on class size reduction as the overall cure; think more spending is the answer to every question; pander to educational interest groups; and overreact in their opposition to testing.  Conservatives, on the other hand, said Glass, place too much faith in local control solving every problem; think educators can be motivated by threatening them; make war on teachers unions; believe in underfunding education; and rely on approaches that can't be used on a large scale, such as charter schools.

Nevertheless, Glass thinks both sides want to reach an agreement on education reform, so they can cite it as an achievement.