The Opposite of Disgust: Iowa Sen. Rob Hogg on education

I am a public school teacher in Iowa.  This is my calling and my passion as well as my profession.  Given how much that simple statement means to me, it is VERY hard not to take the anti-teacher/anti-union/anti-education rhetoric personally. I freely acknowledge that there are ways that I as an educator can improve and ways that education in both Iowa and America can be improved.  But the reality of what I see in my classroom, in my school, in my district, and in my state in no ways reflects the dire situation that is described by so-called education reformers.

It was a rare pleasure and honor to hear what I see every day articulated by a member of the Iowa Senate.  Thank you, Sen. Hogg for your comments about education in Iowa.

Iowa Senate passed education reform; hurdles ahead by Jason Clayworth in the Des Moines Register, Apr. 9, 2012

Republicans, specifically Branstad, have said Iowa’s educational system is being passed by other states with more rigorous standards.

“I’m listening to the conversation, especially some of the things coming from the other side of the aisle, and they’re saying ‘Oh, we’ve got bad students and bad teachers and bad principals and bad schools. Bad.’ And I’m wondering to myself. What Iowa are you looking at? Where’s the reality?” asked Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, during the first day of debate on the bill last week.