The Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators rolled out their legislative priorities for 2012 today, their lobbyist William Gustoff shared what he’ll be focused on when the General Assembly is in session:
- Independent Private Instruction–Lessing the reporting requirements and granting more flexibility to home schoolers.
- Parent-Taught Driver Education–Let’s try it again! It will still face stiff opposition in the Senate.
- "Stay Put" in Child Custody and Education–Where parents disagree on educational setting we need to start from a presumption that continuing what has been done is best for the child. Kids should not be used as weapons in these unfortunate circumstances.
- Clarifying PSEO and Testing Access–Although the Dept. of Ed. agreed with our interpretation (and 20 years of precedent) in the end, we want to stop the issue from coming up again by being more specific in the Iowa Code. The law allows dual enrollment for annual assessment testing only, and someone in the DE tried to change that this summer.
Last session they were able to see progress in the Republican led House only to see it halted in the Democrat led Senate as Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) held up votes.